D

espite the impending expiration of current identification cards, some Jakartans say that the city administration has yet to provide enough information on obtaining replacement electronic ID cards (e-KTP).

Achmad Gilang Ramadhan, 27, a resident of South Kembangan, West Jakarta, said that he has recorded his data for an e-KTP but did not know what to do after he moved.

'My current ID card has expired, and now my address changed. I'm still confused as to what I should do to proceed with an e-KTP, as information from the subdistrict office seems to be unclear,' he said on Thursday.

Noni Maria, 24, a resident of Rawamangun, East Jakarta, had a different story. She said that her subdistrict office would not let her apply for an e-KTP for three months since she just moved to Jakarta.

Noni was applying for a new ID card after she moved from another city when the authorities said that she could only get an ID in the current non-digital format.

'I never knew about this. I thought I could go directly with the electronic type of card, because I'm a new applicant,' Noni said. 'This lack of information will make me have to go back and forth to the office.'

The city administration has said that 1.7 million Jakartans have yet to record their details for e-KTPs, while around 600,000 people who have finished their applications have been waiting for their new cards to be delivered.

The Jakarta Population and Civil Registration Agency's data and information division head, Aqbal Syam, told The Jakarta Post that the agency had distributed cards to around 88 percent of registered citizens.

'Of the total of around 5.5 million finished e-KTPs, we are left with around 600,000 undistributed cards,' Aqbal said.

Aqbal said that the that the undistributed cards were for people who have mistakenly assumed that they could use their current identification cards, while others have moved without notifying authorities.

'We lost track of them,' he said. 'In fact, according to regulations, residents should also be active in the civil registration process.'

Aqbal said that the agency had reminded residents to pick up their new IDs. 'We have called on subdistrict leaders to actively distribute the remaining e-KTPs, as the current IDs will expire on Dec. 31,'
he said.

While Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi previously said that he was optimistic that e-KTPs would be distributed to around 7.2 million Jakartans by April 2012, in January he backed away from the statement, saying that 2014 was a more reasonable target.

The budget for the national e-ID program has reached Rp 1 trillion (US$102.93 million).

The government has said that use of e-KTPs was essential for a range of civic administrative requirements and would also lead to vastly improved voter rolls in the upcoming elections.