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Barely a week after saying minimarket licenses would be issued anew, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo stepped on the brakes on Monday and added a caveat.

The governor said the administration would first make sure that the 1,868 existing minimarkets were in compliance with regulations before issuing any new permits in the city.

Fauzi said last week that he had revoked a 2006 gubernatorial instruction that put a stay on new permits, replacing it with a January 2012 decree on the management and restriction of minimarkets and 7-Elevens.

“We will focus on monitoring the existing minimarkets so that they really meet the requirements to operate based on the regulations,” he said.

Data from the regional administration showed that as of 2011, Jakarta was home to 1,868 minimarkets, with 1,443 of them not having all the required permits and some having none at all.

Of those without permits, 37 were in direct violation of the regulation because they were less than 500 meters from a traditional market, Hasan Basri Saleh, assistant to the Jakarta regional secretary for the economy and administration, has said.

The city also said last week it would specifically evaluate 7-Eleven outlets, which double as restaurants, based on the new decree and a 2006 gubernatorial regulation on restaurants.

Adi Ariantara, the head of the city’s economic bureau, said they found that of the 57 7-Eleven stores in Jakarta, only 15 had proper licenses.

Hasan has said that restrictions on minimarkets under a 2002 regional regulation still apply. These regulations stipulate that modern markets of up to 200 square meters should be located at least 500 meters from traditional markets.

Modern markets with surface areas of between 200 and 1,000 square meters should be at least a kilometer away from traditional markets.

However, despite the regulations, more and more minimarkets have been established.

Many have suggested that Fauzi’s drastic change in minimarket policy has something to do with an attempt to attract voters ahead of the gubernatorial election this year.

More and more small and traditional traders, over than a million of whom are potential voters in the Jakarta election, have expressed anger over the mushrooming number minimarkets, which have driven many of them out of business.

Purwanti Suryo, a trader at a traditional market in Johar Baru, Central Jakarta, complained that fewer and fewer people came to the market since modern minimarkets moved into the area in large numbers.

“Almost 75 percent of the kiosks have closed since last year,” she told Hukum, an online news portal.

Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) director Nurkholis Hidayat accused Fauzi of having political motives behind the policy change. “We should see if it relates to the upcoming gubernatorial election,” he said.

But a spokesman for minimarket chain Alfamart, Solihin, said the new gubernatorial decree did not mean they would go on a building spree.

“We will follow the regulations set out by the law,” he said, adding that they were now focused on expanding outside Jakarta.