No kidding: Five Obamas, ‘Crazy Dick’ star in Brazil protest vote

Five Barack Obamas, three Bin Ladens, a Jesus, a Wonder Woman, a 007: the ballot for Sunday’s elections in Brazil can look more like the inventory at a costume shop. But the madcap cast of candidates reflects deep frustration with politics as usual, say analysts in Brazil, where 80 percent of the population say they don’t trust Congress and fed-up voters prefer an illiterate clown to another corrupt politician. That was literally the case in the last national elections four years ago, when a Sao Paulo clown named Tiririca (Grumpy) ran for Congress on the campaign slogan “It can’t get any worse.” He won the most votes of any congressional candidate in the country, 1.3 million, and had to learn to write his name to start his new job.

The joke ends up being on the voters, who pick the clown thinking it’s a way of criticizing the system. But then the clown brings more conventional candidates with him, including some with criminal records, as was the case with Tiririca.

Gil Castello Branco, the founder of activist group Cuentas Abiertas

In this sprawling South American country where corruption scandals have grown almost routine – fueling massive protests last year, when more than one million people flooded the streets in anger at the theft of their tax money – a wacky gimmick or ridiculous name can get a political outsider elected. Election law allows candidates to register under any name they like, and the ballot is bursting with creativity, from Wonder Woman to Yoghurt Woman, from Hamburger Face to Motorcycle Man, from Crazy Dick to Ass to Chupacabra, Chiclet, Rambo and Brazilian 007.

often opportunists with nothing to offer, but generally not the biggest thieves in Brazilian politics.

Silvio Costa, the founder of political watchdog website Focus on Congress