After 5 years of back-and-forth, Egypt throws out daylight saving time

After years of flip-flopping, the Cabinet has definitively voted to do away with daylight saving time, local media reported Monday.

Whether or not it’s worthwhile to turn the clock an hour forward during the summer to save electricity has been a matter of debate at least since 2011, when daylight saving was canceled for the first time since Egypt began implementing the practice in 1988.

This year’s ruling has been a source of friction between the Cabinet and the Parliament. The government first announced in April that daylight saving would be reinstated on July 7, staying in effect until the end of October, as usual. But in June the Parliament voted to do away with daylight saving time, arguing that studies have proven the practice is disruptive and has a minimal effect on electricity consumption. The Parliament asked the Cabinet to ratify its vote, but the government responded with reservations, asserting that throwing out daylight saving time would impose a financial burden on the electricity and aviation sectors.

Sources at EgyptAir reported the company could lose up to LE18 million in additional reservation system expenses if daylight saving was canceled.

Last week, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Magdy al-Agaty entered a heated debate with members of Parliament when he informed them that the Cabinet planned to proceed with implementing daylight saving time next week. Angry MPs then accused the ministers of failing to respect their decisions.

In 2011, the Cabinet canceled daylight saving time shortly after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak when a state-sponsored poll indicated that 88 percent of Egyptians considered the practice a nuisance. But daylight saving returned in 2014, when then-Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb’s Cabinet was waging a campaign to decrease electricity consumption. However, time-keeping grew even more convoluted when the government temporarily turned the clock back to winter time during the month of Ramadan to shorten fasting hours, only to restore daylight saving time at the end of the holy month.

In 2015, President Abdel Fattah al Sisi issued a decree to temporarily halt implementing daylight saving time that year in order to avoid multiple time changes to accommodate Ramadan.