Illiterate clown triumphs in election

smash

This is pretty funny...

SAO PAULO — Voters the world over complain about having clowns for politicians, but Brazilians embraced the idea on Sunday by sending a real one to Congress with more votes than any other candidate.

Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, better known by his clown name Tiririca, received more than 1.3 million votes in Sao Paulo state in Brazil's presidential and congressional elections. That was more than double the votes of the second-placed candidate in Brazil's most populous state.

Tiririca caught the attention of disillusioned voters by asking for their support with the humorous slogan: "It can't get any worse" and a promise to do nothing more in Congress than report back to them on how politicians spend their time.

"What does a congressman do? The truth is I don't know, but vote for me and I'll tell you," the 45-year-old said in his campaign advertisements.

The clown, whose stage name means "grumpy," usually appears in public wearing a blond wig, a red hat and a garish outfit. He survived a last-minute attempt by public prosecutors to bar him from running because of evidence that he is illiterate.

His candidacy may not have been as spontaneous or innocent as it might appear.

Tiririca's well-financed campaign will help elect other politicians because under Brazil's election rules he can pass his substantial excess votes on to other candidates in his coalition, which includes the ruling Workers' Party.

http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/101004-brazil-election-clown-vmed.grid-4x2.jpg

Funkfield

Makes sense to me.

SeaFields

Oh its in Brazil? I thought somebody had bumped up an old thread from our last general election.

Dunjohn

The thread title made me think you were insulting Miliband or something. Glad to see you're actually a polite and well-informed young man.

Gillington

Biffo the Clown

Sykk

He has some really big shoes to fill..

/hide

smash

Can't wait to see who he passes his excess votes to...

Sanjuro

Christ. I thought I'd stumbled into a dystopian future where Bertie Aherne had won the Irish Presidential election.

evercloserunion

Sanjuro wrote: »

Christ. I thought I'd stumbled into a dystopian future where Bertie Aherne had won the Irish Presidential election.

No don't worry. He was only elected Taoiseach three times in a row.

orourkeda

How many of the voters are illiterate clowns.

Cianos

orourkeda wrote: »

How many of the voters are illiterate clowns.

Having someone involved who will be genuinely honest and not career driven could be of great benefit to any country. Politicians are way too political, and this guy seems to be completely outside of that dynamic. We could do with that disruption, sending one clown in will probably uproot several more that just dress differently.

Brendog

http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/content/episodes/screenshots/3f09.jpg

Iguana Bob

it also helped him that in brazil you have no choice you have to vote, miss 3 times for no reason ad its off to jail. so if you dont give a crap who you vote for youll probably remember the funny one.

krudler

Awwww, I thought Krusty had been elected president...