While parliamentary elections in the major cities are often fixed by the ruling party, elections in [[Upper Egypt]] -- the—the poorest and most underdeveloped part of the country where approximately 40% of Egypt's population live -- arelive—are more free, with the ruling party "recruiting whoever happened to win." According to journalist Peter Hessler, neglect of Upper Egypt has also allowed the region to "devise indigenous campaign traditions".<ref name=NYER-7-March-2016>{{cite journal |journal=New Yorker |date=7 March 2016 |last1=Hessler |first1=Peter |title=Letter from El-Balyana |accessdate=21 March 2016 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/07/egypts-singular-stay-at-home-campaigns}}</ref>
Without parties or local media to promote issues or policies, campaigns consist primarily of evening house calls to potential voters by candidates with their entourage. Visits may last anywhere from only a minute to a half an hour. Candidates are served cigarettes, (non-alcoholic) drinks or sweets; The visits are not confined to a period before the election but often continue even when the parliament is cancelled and elections continually delayed.<ref name=NYER-7-March-2016/>
The group affiliation of the candidates is not party or ideology but tribe (despite the fact that according to anthropologists "tribes" in Egypt are often 20th century creations{{source?|date=October 2016}}). Because family hierarchies dominate most people’s lives, candidates seek the support of clan elders who direct family members, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, how to vote. Candidates may successfully campaign without the "support of any party or other institution" because there are no party networks. They do campaign with family members and when defeated candidates lose face because elections are a matter of family pride.<ref name=NYER-7-March-2016/>
Candidates often have no platform, do not talk "about issues, policies, or potential legislation", or make any "public campaign promises". Candidates often sit in silence on their visits rather than formally introduce themselves, give a stump speech or field questions about what they will do if elected. Potential voters will however often ask for small favors such as making a call to a government office that issued permits or handled utilities on the voter's behalf if the candidate is elected.<ref name=NYER-7-March-2016/>
Campaigning involves male Muslims, as candidates seldom if ever interact with women (who in the south are sequestered at home and sometimes forbidden from voting by the clan elder), and the ten percent [[Copts in Egypt|Coptic Christian]] minority is "basically ignored" by "most" candidates.<ref name=NYER-7-March-2016/>
