Opposition candidates claimed that voters' lists included the names of dead people. Registration on the electoral roll is regulated by law. Under the law, when anybody reaches the age of 18 or dies, it is reported to us by the Civil Registry Department. But some people die outside Egypt or outside the districts where they are registered and their death is not reported to us. We cannot eliminate names from voter lists without being informed, either by families or through official channels.
Some candidates charge that their rivals stormed polling stations and rigged the votes.
Any action of this kind was met with an immediate response from the judiciary, who excluded the votes from that polling station, and the police, who arrested the lawbreakers and referred them to the prosecution authorities. Although the Islamists won around 60 seats in the 1987 elections, they fared miserably in the first round of these elections. They do not have grassroots support or public sympathy. This is the most plausible interpretation. They made some gains in 1987 because at that time they had not resorted to violence.