President Mohamed Morsy appointed 10 new governors, of whom four are affiliated with the Brotherhood, three are retired military generals and five are academics.
The appointments counter recent media reports about a Brotherhood quest to hegemonize local governance by reserving a large percentage of governors’ posts for its members. Presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali says the decisions were based on merit, not party affiliations.
Saad al-Husseiny, 59, was appointed as governor of Kafr al-Sheikh in the Delta, a traditional stronghold for the Brothers but which gave fewer votes to Morsy than expected in the presidential polls.
Husseiny was the secretary of the now-dissolved People’s Assembly Budget and Planning Committee and a parliamentary spokesperson for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
Monufiya, the hometown of the two last presidents and a stronghold of the former regime, was given to 67-year-old Mohamed Bashir, a member of the Brotherhood Guidance Bureau.
While new appointments are not dominated by Brotherhood members, among them are figures who sympathize with the group. Osama Kamal, Engineers Syndicate undersecretary who won the election by running on the Brotherhood ticket, was appointed governor of Cairo.
Meanwhile, the new appointments preserved the traditional practice of giving border governorates’ posts to army generals. The contentious North Sinai Governorate, bordering the Gaza Strip and Israel and home to a thriving Islamic militancy, was given to Abdel Fattah Harhour, an army general. Morsy dismissed his predecessor last month after armed assailants attacked a military checkpoint and killed 16 security officers.
The Red Sea Governorate, bordering Saudi Arabia and Jordan, is now headed by General Mohamed Kamel, while Suez, home to the critical Suez Canal, is now headed by General Samir Ajlan.
