Crash program launched for process ID cards

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso has instructed all the city subdistrict heads to launch a crash program on ID card processing to enable city residents to have new ID cards or have their expired cards renewed ahead of the June 7 general election, an official said on Friday.

Tursandi Alwi, an assistant to the city secretary on public administration affairs, said that the one-month program was intended mainly to give a chance to young people already 17 years old and eligible to get ID cards, and to others whose cards have already expired to process theirs.

"The program is mainly focused on residents aged 17 years old to process ID cards to enable them to participate in the election," he said.

The program was open for all people eligible to have the ID cards, including Betawi (native Jakartans), but not newcomers to the city, he said.

"The program is not for newcomers or non-Jakartans," he reiterated.

Tursandi said that the program was needed to accommodate requirements for the June poll voters of the 1999 Law No. 3 on general elections which say that to become a voter one was required to show an ID card or other identification like a driving license, a family card or a marriage certificate.

According to him, out of the total of about 9.7 million Jakarta residents, the number of Jakartans eligible to vote in the poll was about 5.8 million.

Data from the city population agency showed that the number of 17-year-olds who were eligible to posses ID cards was about 175,000.

Out of about 1.7 million people in the capital who did not possess an ID card, 1.5 million hold seasonal ID cards and the other 200,000 do not have a card at all.

However, no report is available yet on the number of 17-year- olds who had made use of the chance. "We haven't recorded all the data," Tursandi said.

Contacted separately by The Jakarta Post on Friday several subdistrict heads said that they had responded to the governor's instruction.

The secretary of Bangka subdistrict in South Jakarta, Herianto, said that the subdistrict officials had opened counters at certain locations in all neighborhoods to facilitate the ID processing.

Cholid Munir, head of Rawamangun subdistrict in East Jakarta, said that he had instructed neighborhood chiefs to remind their community members that their ID cards could be processed or renewed. (ind)