JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo is broadly tipped to announce a cupboard reshuffle on Wednesday, in accordance to media stories, with the commerce portfolio among the many ministerial posts anticipated to be modified.
Speculation of a ministerial shake-up has grown in current days, significantly after a number of ministers had been summoned to the presidential palace on Tuesday.
The Koran Tempo newspaper cited sources saying a reshuffle can be introduced on Wednesday afternoon, although Reuters couldn’t instantly affirm the report.
Among ministers summoned to the palace on Tuesday had been Coordinating Economics Minister Airlangga Hartarto, Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi, and Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister Sofyan Djalil.
The National Mandate Party chairman, Zulkifli Hasan, and former army chief, Hadi Tjahjanto, had been amongst non-cabinet members additionally summoned.
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Analysts say the commerce minister might be amongst these changed after coming beneath political stress over the dealing with of coverage efforts to comprise a surge in home cooking oil.
Minister Lutfi had blamed a “palm oil mafia” for undermining efforts to comprise cooking oil costs after bringing in a shock ban on palm oil exports in April.
The export ban, since lifted, triggered shockwaves on international markets and led to a collection of arrests for alleged corruption.
The president might also look to appoint a member from the National Mandate Party (PAN), which joined the ruling coalition earlier final 12 months, political observers say.
A ballot carried out by Charta Politika, which was launched on Monday and interviewed 1,200 folks from May 25-June 2, confirmed that 63.1% of respondents supported a proposal to reshuffle the present cupboard.
(Writing by Kate Lamb; Editing by Ed Davies)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
