Dominican officials suggest helping Haiti stage election, if asked

Santo Domingo.- The Central Electoral Board (JCE)delegation that visited Haiti in a first attempt to reach an agreement on theelectoral area, recommended providing the assistance which Port-au-Princerequested, to launch a plan to collect fingerprints leading to the elections inOctober.

The recommendation is in a report to president JCE RobertoRosario, by the members of the delegation. It says the voter identificationpilot plan is only implemented in one or two polling stations that would cover30 to 50 voting sites, with a cap of 400 voters.

It said at the request by Haiti’s Provisional ElectoralCouncil, the delegation demonstrated a concurrent registration and automationsystem of the ballots used in Dominican Republic’s last elections.

"They asked what it would take for them to use thissoftware solution in Haiti, informing them that to establish the systems’compatibility, they should provide us in principle samples of records, with thetechnical standards specified of Haitian citizens," the report says.

The registry would include the three types of IDs used inHaiti, and notes that once the compatibility of such records is determined itwould be possible specify the required assistance.

the report also notes that the delegation, which was inHaiti since July 20,met with members of Haiti civil society who expressedinterest in the voting system used by Dominicans. They also met withrepresentatives of the Haiti Justice Ministry’s National Identity Office.