A Brazilian clown known as Tiririca — which means “Grumpy” in colloquial Portuguese — is favoured to win a seat in the Brazilian Parliament in this Sunday’s elections. Tiririca, whose real name is Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, is predicted by the pollsters to gain a million votes after campaigning on slogans including “It can’t get any worse” and “What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don’t know. But vote for me and I will find out for you.”
Appearances by the clown on You Tube have been the advertising successes of the Brazilian election campaign.
The only impediment to victory appears to be a constitutional requirement that deputies be able to read and write with a judge in Sao Paulo demanding he demonstrate that he meets the literacy requirement for elected office after newspapers reported that, like one-in-10 Brazilians, he is illiterate.
