Jakarta – Prabowo Subianto plans to announce his cabinet on the day of his inauguration as the next president next month, a senior politician of his Gerindra Party said.
Party executive and House of Representatives deputy speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad was quoted by Kompas as saying on Monday that "the plan is to have Prabowo announce the cabinet [immediately after his inauguration]" on Oct. 20.
The prevailing law stipulates that a sitting president must form a cabinet no later than 14 days after their inauguration.
Prabowo has started vetting prospective candidates for his cabinet, with Dasco and some other Gerindra politicians recently stressing that Prabowo wished to have ministers with expertise in their field.
"Pak Prabowo wants this to be a zaken cabinet, in which people who are experts in their fields will hold positions, even though they come from or are endorsed by a political party," Gerindra executive Ahmad Muzani said last week, without revealing any proposed names.
Prabowo is also reportedly considering forming a big cabinet of 44 ministers to accommodate political allies and former rivals in his ever-growing ruling coalition.
Last week, the House of Representatives and the government of outgoing President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who tacitly endorsed Prabowo in the February election, agreed to remove a legal limit of 34 on the number of ministries in a proposed revision to the 2008 Ministry Law. The House said it would pass the bill before the tenure of current lawmakers comes to an end on Sept. 30. (ipa)