Exactly a year after Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a Presidential decree cancelling daylight savings, the government announced that daylight savings will return at the end of Ramadan, on 7 July.

Daylight savings, which the government had earlier this year said could return on 29 April, has been cancelled and resumed multiple times since the 25 January revolution in 2011.

No explanation has been provided as to why the government decided to resume daylight savings despite the 2015 Presidential decree.

In April 2015, Egypt’s President scrapped daylight savings after a poll conducted by the government reportedly found that moving the clock one hour forward during summer was unpopular among Egyptian citizens, said the Presidency’s spokesperson at the time.

Daylight savings was first abolished in April 2011, then revived in March 2014 to ease pressure on Egypt’s energy sector. Egypt experienced numerous blackouts during hot summers following the 2011 revolution.

March 2014’s revival was seen as a joke by many Egyptians, with the time changing four times in the space of just three months.

Daylight savings was first introduced to Egypt in 1988. The practice is generally adopted across the world to save energy.

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