JCE outlines need for updated national ID card format

Santo Domingo.- The Central Electoral Board (JCE) has announced the renewal of the Dominican national identity and electoral cards, a process driven by legal requirements, technological obsolescence, and the need for stronger security measures against identity theft and cybercrime. The current cards, issued in 2014 with a 10-year validity, expire in 2024. Under the authority granted by Law 20-23, the JCE will introduce a new format made of polycarbonate, featuring laser engraving, a secure chip, QR code, and biometric authentication. These innovations will store encrypted personal and biometric data, prevent cloning, and enable secure electronic transactions, ensuring higher protection of citizens’ identities. The goal is to update the documents of over 9.4 million citizens and residents, including nearly one million minors reaching adulthood by 2025.

The renewal process is being executed through an international public tender, fully compliant with Dominican procurement laws. While the opening of economic bids has been temporarily delayed due to a formal objection from one bidder, the JCE confirmed that the overall timeline remains unaffected, with preliminary renewals starting in the last quarter of 2025. Parallel to this, the JCE is conducting a proactive cleanup of the civil registry, validating millions of records to ensure that only legally compliant and verified citizens receive the new IDs. The process has been presented to political, business, religious, and media sectors, gaining broad institutional support.

Beyond modernizing citizen identification, the new ID will strengthen the electoral system, ensuring cleaner voter rolls and better security for the 2027 primaries and 2028 general elections. With future electoral reforms expected to increase voting complexity, the upgraded document will support smoother operations and greater reliability.