Daylight Saving Time has been scrapped, reports Reem Leila Egypt will stop switching to Daylight Saving Time (DST). Clocks and watches will not be put forward or backward one hour at midnight, which used to happen at the beginning of summer and another upon the advent of winter. The cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, issued a decree on 20 April scrapping DST which was on the last Thursday of April and September. The decree was based on a poll conducted by the cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) to see what people thought of DST. According to the poll which surveyed 9,628 people, 78 per cent, or 7,524 people, said DST should be cancelled. Nineteen per cent of the sample -- 1,867 people -- said no, while the remaining 237 people, who formed two per cent, were undecided. The poll, conducted on 18 April, was meant to assess opinion before issuing the decree. Egypt first started using the DST system in 1988 to reduce electricity consumption. It was adopted by many other countries after the 1973 oil embargo to save energy by reducing light needed in the late afternoons. At the beginning of this month, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy also submitted a report to Sharaf stating the DST does not have a significant impact on reducing the consumption of electricity. Sharaf stated in a TV address that many Egyptians believed it was meaningless to change the time twice a year. Last year, the time was adjusted four times to accommodate the beginning and end of the fasting month of Ramadan. DST, which is popular in several countries, advances time by one hour during summer. The sun seems to rise later, when people are still sleeping. In the evening, it sets one hour later, thus giving the impression that the day is longer. Businessman Mohamed Afifi describes the cabinet decision to do away with DST as right. "It was ridiculous to have daylight yet have the hands of your watch pointing to 8.30pm. Moving the clock forward and backward was very confusing, and unnecessarily stretched the day." The cabinet's decision should have been taken a long time ago, Afifi added. Housewife Rabab El-Moqadem, however, believes it would have been better to keep DST at least this year until the streets become safer. "If we still have the DST I could have stayed with my kids during their training sessions in the club until 8pm without fear of the darkness. Now I have to beg each coach to make my kids' training sessions an hour or two earlier in order not to stay late outside the house. It's no longer safe, especially with the increase in thugs on the streets," argued El-Moqadem. Egypt is suffering from a security vacuum following the disappearance of police during the unrest which ousted Hosni Mubarak on 11 February. Policemen have returned to the streets since but not in full force. According to a report issued by the IDSC many European countries were against the idea of DST, although it was adopted by several of them in 1916. DST was first suggested in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin. Many countries which adopted the DST system used it to modify the time due to special conditions or events. In 2007 DST was used by countries including Canada and the US. It used to begin on the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November. Today, countries which resort to DST adjust the clock by one hour forward or backward. But back in 1940, clock adjustment varied. Clocks were sometimes advanced by two hours, at other times by only 30 minutes -- considered a half adjustment -- each according to a country's needs. The report said that during the first half of the 20th century, DST was frequently used by New Zealand. During World War II, the US used to resort to DST but for longer time intervals, not only during summer. All states of the USA used the DST from 3 February 1942 till 30 September 1945, when it was called War Time. Egypt's local time will remain GMT+2.
