Expected government reshuffle in Jordan
Jordan, Politics, 6/27/2005

It is expected that the Jordanian prime minister Adnan Badran will introduce a reshuffle of his government in order to ensure it getting the needed confidence of the parliament two months after its formation.

An official source said that the most important change in the government will be by the return back of the current minister of the current royal court, Marwan al-Mashar, to occupy the post of the deputy premier, and his basic mission will be to accelerate the pace of reform.

The same source explained that five ministers at least will leave the government in addition to the controversial minister of finance Basem Awadallah who submitted his resignation on June 15 after he was strongly criticized by the parliament.

The Jordanian prime minister had made consultations with the parliamentary blocs in preparations to introduce the expected change. Simultaneously, King Abdullah II made contact will all political strata at the parliament.

Badran's government which is described as reformist and was formed on April 7th. However, being exposed to criticism by the parliament pushed the prime minister to introduce change to it before the session for casting confidence on it. A matter which constitutes an unprecedented phenomenon in the country's political history.

This criticism, especially the performance of the finance minister and the economic team which he had led in the government, resulted in the resignation of Awadallah who was also a minister in the previous government under the former prime minister Faisal al-Fayez.

Al-Mashar was appointed a minister for the royal court. He also leads the "national agenda" team since several months, representing all social strata in charge of planning for reform in the kingdom.

The Jordanian king Abdullah had repeatedly stressed that reform is a priority for Jordan He recommended the "national agenda" team to come up by fall of September the needed change for the next ten years .

The Jordanian King considered the resignation of Awadallah as a "concession." The king demanded the prime minister to appoint efficient persons, and by that he green lighted the introduction of a ministerial change.

Previous Stories:
  Jordanian prime minister seeks government reshuffle   (6/20/2005)
  Jordanian king calls for accelerating reforms   (6/17/2005)
  King Abdullah: American pressure helped reforms   (6/11/2005)

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