House of Representatives Speaker Bambang Soesatyo will ask the Home Ministry to provide an explanation as to why hundreds of e-ID cards were found scattered on Jl. Raya Salabenda in Bogor regency, West Java, over the weekend.

“We’re asking Commission II of the House to ask the ministry why the ID cards, declared defective, were kept and not immediately destroyed,” Bambang said in a statement on Monday as quoted by tempo.co.

He said the e-ID cards could be misused for rigging regional elections this year or presidential elections next year.

House Deputy Speaker Agus Hermanto said the government owed the public a thorough explanation on the incident to shed suspicions, considering this year and the next were election years.

Hundreds of e-ID cards were reportedly were found scattered on a sidewalk in Bogor, West Java. 

The ministry’s population and civil registration director general, Zudan Arif Fakrulloh, said on Sunday that the cards were defective cards that had fallen out of a ministry car. 

The car was reportedly transporting a box and sack of defective e-ID cards from the ministry’s storage facility in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, to another storage facility in Semplak, Bogor.

“I don’t know the exact number of cards that had fallen out during the incident. But, with the help of the Bogor Police, we’ve successfully taken the defective cards to a storage facility [in Semplak] and we’ll question the car’s driver about the incident,” he said as reported by tribunnews.com. (vla/evi)