El Siglo newspaper reports that the Central Electoral Junta (JCE) is still behind in its plan to provide new voting and identification documents to Dominicans by December 1999. Dominicans need the new documents to vote in the 16 May 2000 election. According to the item, the JCE has not been able to issue the cards to 58.5% of the citizens that have requested them and initiated the procedure at JCE offices. Of the 3,272,198 persons that have visited the JCE, only 1,916,558 have received their cards. Most of these (657,873) have been handed out in the Metropolitan Zone, which includes Santo Domingo and the National District, Bajos de Haina, Bayaguana, Monte Plata, Sabana Grande de Boya and Yamasá). The JCE says it has enlisted the help of the leading political parties to encourage the 261,345 citizens who have not picked up their cards from JCE offices to do so.
