CAIRO - Twenty-seven governors and their deputies, including 18 new faces, were sworn in Saturday before Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in charge of Egypt. Egyptians protested for the second day in a row against the newly appointed Governor of Qena in Upper Egypt, General Emad Shehata Michael. About 5,000 people gathered outside the headquarters of Qena Governorate calling for appointing a Muslim governor. They threatened to prevent him from entering the building to start his new job. Michael's predecessor, Magdi Ayoub, was also a Christian. The protests against appointing a Coptic governor renewed fears of sectarian tension between Muslims and Christians in Qena, which has witnessed such tension repeatedly in the past, according to dpa. However, many Copts have played down the possibility, saying that they would rather not have a Christian governor, after the problems with ex-Governor Ayoub, with whom church leaders clashed. Protests broke out on Friday shortly after the police introduced General Michael as the new Qena Governor. The protesters, most of them reportedly Salafists and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as members of the January 25 Youth Coalition from Qena, spent the night outside the headquarters, chanting slogans against Michael. They accused the new Governor of being a part of the former Mubarak regime, as he was a police officer. The demonstrators also likened him to Ayoub. Some protesters, carrying banners reading “We do not want Michael!”, said that they will keep on demonstrating till the authorities backtrack on the decision to appoint Michael as their new Governor. Eighteen new governors had been newly appointed or changed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf two days earlier. Meanwhile, the April 6 Youth Movement in the Delta Governorate of el-Daqahliya also expressed their displeasure with their newly appointed Governor, Mohssen Hefzi, another police general. Hefzi held various posts in the corrupt, toppled regime, working for long years in the much-hated State Security Police, according to a statement, which added that he “does not belong to el-Daqahliya and hasn't a clue about the people and their problems”. Meanwhile, dozens of employees of the former governorates of 6th October and Helwan had gathered in front of the Cabinet headquarters on Thursday, protesting at the revoking of a decision issued by Mubarak that had made each of them a separate governorate. The 6th October Governorate has returned to Giza Governorate and Helwan will once again be part of the capital. Protesters urged Sharaf to annul the decision issued a couple of days before. Similar protests were held in Maadi. Once part of Cairo Governorate, Maadi became part of the now defunct Helwan Governorate; it's now back home in Cairo. The demonstrators argued that the changes haven't been adequately studied.
