Twenty five governors and nine deputy governors took the oath of office on Tuesday before interim president Adly Mansour. Twenty of the governors were newly appointed and included: Governor of Cairo Gala Mostafa Saeed, Governor of Gharbeya Mohamed Abdel Moneim, Governor of Beni Suef Ali Abdel Rahman Youssef, Governor of Alexandria Tarek Mahdy Abdel Towab, Governor of Assiut Ibrahim Hamad, Governor of Kafr Al-Sheikh Mohamed Ezzat Agwa, Governor of Beni Suef Mohamed Magdy Al-Batity, Governor of Luxor Tarek Saad El-Din, Governor of Daqahlia Omar Mohamed Abdel Gawad, Governor of Qaliubiya Moahmed Abdel Daher, Governor of Damietta Mohamed Abdel Latif Mansour, Governor of Ismailia Ahmed Bahaa El-Din Al-Qassas, Governor of Aswan Mostafa Yousry Attalah, Governor of Suez Al-Araby Ahmed Al-Serouwi, Governor of Minya Salah El-Din Zeyada, Governor of Beheira Mostafa Kamel Hadhoud, Governor of Sohag Mahmoud Othman, Governor of Qena Abdel Hamid Al-Hagan, Governor of Fayoum Hazem Atteya-Allah, and Governor of Sharqia Saeed Abdel Aziz Othman. Governors for the Red Sea Governorate and Menoufiya were not named on Tuesday. Mansour headed the first Board of Governors meeting at the presidential palace after the oaths, joined by Vice-President Mohamed ElBaradei, Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi, and the ministers of electricity, local development, supply, housing, petroleum, health, education, and presidential advisors. Al-Ahram reported that the interim president focused on issues of development, job creation, investment, quality of services and standards of living in his first meeting with the governors. Mansour also discussed the process of expediting decisions on the governorate level when it came to issues facing low income citizens during the transitional phase. The governors, most of which hail from backgrounds with the Ministry of the Interior and the armed forces, also discussed the security situation in the country and ways to restore calm, reported Al-Ahram. Spokesman for the Salafi Al-Nour Party Sherif Taha told Al-Ahram the government had approached the party to nominate members for governor posts. However the party, according to Taha, declined participation in the governor reshuffle, reiterating that Al-Nour would not offer members for government posts at this stage. Taha also criticised the appointment of new governors without reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, calling on the government to create conditions in which "polarisation would not be further exacerbated among political parties." The reshuffle of the regional leaders comes approximately two months after ousted president Mohamed Morsi appointed 17 new governors.
