Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb has said he had not settled on the final formation of the government he was tasked to form by president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, but promised that the new makeup will be a “surprise.”
“We need a government that gets to work shortly and engage with difficult issues,” he told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Mehleb is the second prime minister to head the government since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsy after former premier Hazem al-Beblawy.
“I had met with several candidates… I intentionally impose secrecy on the new formation,” he said.
Official Cabinet sources, meanwhile, expect half of the current 31 ministers will be replaced, with some ministries that had been merged earlier to be separated again.
The sources revealed that the new government will, most likely, be sworn in on Sunday, adding that the Prime Minister told his aides he will declare the new government via TV and that the formation will be “a surprise for everybody.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
