A candidate running for the state assembly of Amazonia in northern Brazil under the moniker “Osama bin Laden” was detained during Sunday’s vote after allegedly campaigning outside the local polling stations, which is illegal, Brazilian electoral officials said.
“Bin Laden” — real name Manoel Nunes de Assis — was standing for the tiny centrist National Labor Party (PTN).
Nunes was arrested in the regional capital, Manaus, as he reportedly sought votes while handing out bottles of water.
“He stood in the doorway under the pretext of selling water, while approaching people and asking for votes,” the G1 Web site quoted electoral magistrate Henrique Veiga as saying.
Election rules allow candidates to contend for office under whatever name they choose. This year has seen an imaginative crop, including Wonder Woman and Rambo, while a handful also campaigned as Barack Obama.
Nunes, one of three candidates named bin Laden running in Sunday’s presidential and legislative elections, faces being removed from the race if he is found to have violated election rules.
The Superior Electoral Court had detained 551 people nationwide, including 55 candidates, over various alleged indiscretions an hour before polls closed in most of Brazil’s 27 states.
Although bin Laden’s bid was seemingly thwarted, a clown named Tiririca (Grumpy) succeeded in his, being re-elected to Brazil’s National Congress on Sunday with 1 million votes, the second-highest number of any candidate, election officials said.
Tiririca was initially elected to represent Sao Paulo in 2010, winning the most votes of any candidate in the nation after running on the slogan “It can’t get any worse.”
Illiterate at the time, he had to learn to write his name to start his new job.
In four years, he never spoke on the floor, but had one of the best attendance records.
His success spawned a flood of protest and gag candidacies.
Political analysts say these candidacies are the symptom of frustration with corruption scandals and political gridlock in Brazil, Latin America’s largest democracy.
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