The distribution of electronic national identification cards will begin by Thursday next week, the Ministry of Interior said Wednesday, with as many as 18 million Afghans expected to be issued the new cards ahead of the upcoming presidential and provincial elections.
"The distribution of the electronic ID cards will begin by next Thursday (April 18). Our people are confident that we will distribute 12 to 18 million electronic ID cards within one year," said Mohammad Masoom Farhad, Interior Ministry's general director for distribution of the electronic ID cards.
Many political parties and civil society organisations have hailed the electronic ID cards as a way to reduce fraud in the elections, but had sought it for each voting citizen – a plan quashed by the government as impossible to achieve by the April elections next year.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MOCIT), all of the equipment and materials for printing, distributing, and identifying the citizens are ready and available for the task ahead.
"All the equipment needed for the distribution of the electronic ID cards have been provided by the ministry to the joint committee of the distribution of ID cards," said Bariyalai Hussam, deputy minister MOCIT.
Some have objected that the new cards do not indicate the tribe of the card holder, claiming that the current version – which only states nationality as "Afghan" – is just as divisive because a certain pronunciation of the word is understood to only refer to the Pashtun tribe.
"My family and I might not accept the electronic ID card if the tribe and nationality are not mentioned in it," said Atta Mohammad Noor, Balkh provincial governor.
In order to meet the quota for the new cards, the machines will make produce up to 80,000 cards a day with each machine able to print 400 an hour, the interior ministry said.
Figures suggest that distribution of the electronic national ID cards – aimed to eventually reach all 30 million citizens – will cost about US$120 million.