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Half Brazil's election candidates on trial

by Luiz Castro | October 4, 2008 at 05:18 am | 170 views | 9 comments | 34 recommendations

Brazil is helding municipal elections tomorrow and that is the profile of the candidates.

Two months ago a court ruling allowed for people on trial to run for public office in Brazil.

A study by the political watchdog Congresso em Foco has shown it to be a very significant decision.

Of the 178 candidates running for mayor of Sao Paulo in Sunday's election, 86 of them are currently on trial.

Between them the candidates face 415 trials with 11 contenders in Brazil's economic centre Sao Paulo facing a total of 106 charges.

Former Sao Paulo governor and mayor Paulo Maluf was comfortably elected to office in 2006 despite facing 49 trials.

Take a look on the candidates names:

Brazilian politicians often adopt unusual names at election time. Candidates are allowed to either register in their own name or a chosen one. Many use their long-held nicknames but some adopt outlandish identities to grab attention.

The real name of President Lula is not Lula, his name is Luiz Inacio da Silva. Lula means squid. "Squid" was his nickname during his time as a Union leader.

However the three candidates who registered to contest the polls as Obama and another three who are now called Barack - or in one case Barak - Obama, have some stiff competition if they hope to stand out.

More than 200 hopefuls contesting the municipal polls next weekend have renamed themselves after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the country's popular president with an approval rating of 80 per cent.

Others have selected monikers from the wild to the ridiculous. There are candidates named after animals (Cattle Ana, Elephant Without a Tail), vehicles (German in the Lorry, Jeep Johnny), kitchen utensils (Big Charlie Knives, Golden Fork), US presidents (Bill Clinton, Jorge Bushi) and infamous Middle-Eastern leaders (DJ Saddam, John Bin Laden, Chico Bin Laden, Luis Bin Laden). King of the Cuckolds, Kung Fu Fatty and The Second King of Prawns will also contest the polls.

Claudio Henrique dos Anjos registered the name Claudio Henrique-Barack Obama as the one voters will see on the ballot after people started comparing him with the Democratic candidate.

Brazil has alarming levels of corruption and imense social problems, President Lula ignores the corruption, elections with those level of candidates, seriously, reading to that, can we have a hope for changes?

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Criticom

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:04 on October 4th, 2008

Luiz Castro, I like this story. It's good stuff.

azzayindia

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:47 on October 4th, 2008

Luiz Castro, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Johnny Summerton

at 08:34 on October 4th, 2008

How about some tongue-in-cheek spin (it is politics after all)?

If half of those standing are currently on trial it means that the other half aren't. Then of course the fact that so many are facing court proceedings could mean that Brazil's political system is more transparent that in other countries. Finally "innocent until proven guilty."

Well I did say "spin".

Good post

Luiz Castro

at 09:09 on October 4th, 2008

Thanks Johnny

You are absolutely right.

The good thing about Brazil is that everything is clear, you know they are corrupts, press speak up, there are lists on internet, debates, it is all clear. The bad side is everyone knows but them still voting for corrupt. Most of the Brazilians will prefer to vote for a corrupt that acts than for an honest that don't does anything. Sad logic for a country!