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.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
in fact, it's probably better
"An illiterate clown wins an election" - Typically this isn't news, but this time it's literally true:
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1 comment:
Great story. Reminds me of a Brazilian (?) radio personality famous for making humorous phone calls to people on the air. WSJ had a very good article about him some years back.
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