NewsWhore
03-05-2007, 05:00 PM
The Central Electoral Board, (JCE) has announced that it has decided to face up to the fact that at least 480,000 people in the Dominican Republic do not officially "exist". These are people without birth certificates or the personal identity card known as the 'cedula'. Their efforts will be supported by five mobile offices that will travel the country and provide these documents, free of charge, to anyone who needs them. The measure will be under the supervision of the JCE's Administrative Chamber and work will begin within the next 30-60 days. The information was provided to Listin Diario reporters by magistrate Jose Angel Aquino. Next week the JCE will be accepting public bids for supplying the five mobile offices. The newspaper recently published a story about three families on the outskirts of San Francisco de Macoris who, for several generations, had never possessed the needed documents.
In a related story, Diario Libre interviewed judge Eddy Olivares, and asked him why the JCE was so intense about the Civil Registry offices. Olivares replied that the offices had "become centers of corruption." When the judge was asked why the crisis was so deep-rooted, Olivares answered that the officials who worked at the civil registry offices gave little importance to the alteration and forging of documents. He said that this was partly because many of the offices are in such poor physical condition, which leads to partial or total destruction of many registration ledgers. Olivares said that many of the problems date back many decades. Despite the fact that the penalties for destroying or altering official documents are harsh, the Attorney General has never put any process in motion to punish offenders. The judge pointed out that a 15-year old law had been a dead letter until the current JCE judges decided to enforce it.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)
In a related story, Diario Libre interviewed judge Eddy Olivares, and asked him why the JCE was so intense about the Civil Registry offices. Olivares replied that the offices had "become centers of corruption." When the judge was asked why the crisis was so deep-rooted, Olivares answered that the officials who worked at the civil registry offices gave little importance to the alteration and forging of documents. He said that this was partly because many of the offices are in such poor physical condition, which leads to partial or total destruction of many registration ledgers. Olivares said that many of the problems date back many decades. Despite the fact that the penalties for destroying or altering official documents are harsh, the Attorney General has never put any process in motion to punish offenders. The judge pointed out that a 15-year old law had been a dead letter until the current JCE judges decided to enforce it.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)