The decision to put Setya’s return before all 560 legislators for final approval was made late on Tuesday evening after hours of discussions in a closed-door meeting between deputy House chairmen and the leaders of the 10 factions at the House.

“We have agreed on the dismissal [of Ade Komarudin] as well as on the mechanism to select the successor,” House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon told the press after the meeting. “We will announce Setya Novanto as the new speaker in the [plenary] session tomorrow”.

Although several lawmakers may voice objections to Setya’s comeback due to his alleged involvement in a an illicit request for shares of mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, which forced him to resign as speaker in December last year, those objections will likely have little impact on the agreement achieved by political elites in the legislative institution following days of intense lobbying after Golkar declared Setya’s return earlier this week.

Meanwhile, current House Speaker Ade has announced his resignation, saying he would obey Golkar’s decision to replace him with Setya.

Ade was not seen attending the Tuesday leadership consultation meeting to discuss his replacement. (dmr)

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