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Zulkifli to stay as MPR head
Newly elected National Mandate Party (PAN) Zulkifli Hasan has refused to give up his position as Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), assuring critics that he could carry out both leadership roles effectively
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ewly elected National Mandate Party (PAN) Zulkifli Hasan has refused to give up his position as Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), assuring critics that he could carry out both leadership roles effectively.
His critics had called on Zulkifli to resign the MPR's top post, which he has held since October last year, in order to allow the former forestry minister to focus on leading PAN wholeheartedly until 2020.
"As the MPR Speaker, I am mandated to inaugurate as well as to fire the President. I did inaugurate the President, and I don't think I will fire him" Zulkifli said on the sidelines of PAN's national congress in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Monday.
"My job as the MPR speaker is basically conducting visits here and there. And I think it will be parallel to my role as [PAN] leader," he added.
Zulkifli took over the party's chairmanship from Hatta Rajasa after he beat the incumbent in a close race by securing 292 votes in a voting session on Sunday night.
Hatta, a running mate of Prabowo Subianto in the 2014 presidential election, had held the post of party leader for five years.(***)(++++)
