CAIRO (Updated) - Prime Minister Essam Sharaf issued a ministerial decree ordering that the two new governorates of Helwan and the 6th of October, which were created some four years ago, would be returned to Cairo and Giza as before. After the decree, the number of the nation's governorates becomes 27 instead of 29. "Prime Minister Sharaf has rescinded a previous republican decree, which had been signed be ex-President Hosni Mubarak, ordering that the two suburbs of Helwan, southern of Cairo, and October 6th, northern of Giza, were turned into governorates," officials said. According to the decree, Helwan and the 6th of October will be parts of the Cairo and Giza Governorates as before, they added. The decree comes into effect once it is published in the official Gazette, the officials said. In a related development, Premier Sharaf reshuffled the governors of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Qalubia, Qena, Suez, Assuit, Sharqia, Menufia, Kafr el-Sheikh, Red Sea, Mersa Mattrouh, Minya, Aswan, South Sinai, North Sinai, Ismailia, New Valley, Suhag and Port Said. The officials, who will be sworn in shortly, will be charged with speeding up modernisation of their respective governorates, the officials said. The large-scale reshuffle was apparently in response to young revolutionaries, who are also pushing for disbanding the local council believed to comprise many loyalists of former president Hosni Mubarak.
