President-elect Joko '€Jokowi'€ Widodo has reduced the number of ministries in his upcoming Cabinet from his initial plan for 34 to 33, allowing him to drop one ministerial post previously pledged for a political appointee.

After chairing a closed-door meeting with vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla and his transition team on Friday, Jokowi announced that his Cabinet will have 33 ministers, four of whom will be coordinating ministers.

'€œThere is one ministry that will be eliminated, as [its function] can be combined with another ministry,'€ Jokowi told a press conference at his official residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, without revealing more details.

Under his new plan, Jokowi would have 18 ministerial posts allocated to professionals and would cut back to 15 the number of seats given to political appointees.

Jokowi was quick to add, however, that the current Cabinet structure could still be subject to further adjustments.

'€œWe need to evaluate further whether with the current structure each directorate general [within the ministries] could perform well,'€ Jokowi said.

As for the political appointees, all candidates would come from politicians in the coalition led by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

'€œAutomatically, those seats will be for parties that join forces with us. We [however] will see how the situation progresses until Oct. 20,'€ Kalla said, referring to the inauguration day of the president- and vice president-elect.

Jokowi has reportedly offered at least one ministerial post to the United Development Party (PPP), a member of the Red-and-White Coalition led by the loser of the July 9 presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, which jumped ship during the nomination process for the People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairmanship.

PPP, one of the first political parties to join the Red-and-White Coalition, was left in the cold by the Gerindra-led coalition in the nomination process for the MPR chairmanship. The party had earlier failed to get a seat among the leadership of the House of Representatives (DPR).

• Jokowi wants fewer political appointees
• Cabinet will only have 33 ministers
• Jokowi now scrutinizing two to five candidates for each post

PPP deputy chairman Hasrul Azwar said that the party would soon convene an internal meeting to decide on the offer.

'€œThe offer shows that Jokowi, as a president-elect, respects his working partners. The PPP really appreciate the offer,'€ Hasrul told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

A source within the Hanura Party, one of the political parties in Jokowi'€™s coalition, confirmed that it had proposed four of its politicians to fill positions in the upcoming Cabinet. The candidates are Iqbal Alan Abdullah, Yuddy Chrisnandi, Susaningtyas Kertopati and Saleh Husin.

Hanura has been offered two ministerial posts.

'€œWe have been offered two posts at two unspecified ministries,'€ the source told the Post.

For political appointees, Jokowi is expected to give the PDI-P up to seven ministerial posts and the National Awakening Party (PKB), the NasDem Party and the Hanura Party would get four, three and two ministers respectively.

But now that the PPP has agreed to join the coalition, the PDI-P may have fewer slots to fill.

Jokowi has also been reported to have made an offer to the Democratic Party in return for support in the election of the House speaker, but the deal was called off when the ruling party joined the Red-and-White Coalition in securing the leadership of the House.

Speculation was also rife that senior Golkar Party member Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, who rebelled against his party'€™s decision to nominate the Prabowo-Hatta Radjasa ticket, is also a top candidate for a key ministerial post.

Luhut, who currently serves as advisor to Jokowi'€™s transition team, has neither denied nor confirmed the speculation.

'€œI have no capacity to answer the question,'€ said Luhut, who was an industry and trade minister under the administration of former president Abdurrahman '€œGus Dur'€ Wahid.

Also in the press conference, Kalla said that Jokowi'€™s Cabinet would have a proportionate number of female ministers.

'€œAt least the allocation will be the same as with the current Cabinet,'€ Kalla said, referring to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s cabinet, which has four female ministers.

After getting a list of more than 200 candidates, Jokowi, Kalla and the transition team are currently only considering between two to five candidates for each ministerial post.

'€œWe are checking their managerial skills, integrity and track records. As soon as this process is completed, we will hand the final list to them for an assessment,'€ Jokowi said, referring to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK).

Last month, the transition team went to the KPK headquarters to discuss the plan to trace the track records of ministerial candidates.

'€œSuch an initiative must start as early as possible. Jokowi and Kalla themselves would interact with the KPK and PPATK,'€ said Andi Widjajanto, one of deputies in the transition team.

The PPATK said that it was ready to screen all financial accounts and transactions of Jokowi'€™s ministerial candidates, as well as those of their wives or husbands and their children.

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