Tiririca é federal!! (Tiririca is federal!!): The Brazilian elections show

[Arwon]

...no, actually it still is.

 

[gangleri2001]

First allow me to point out that Tiririca belongs to Lula's coalition.

Second, this is no laughing matter. In Brazil we have something called "electoral coefficient". This means that part of the votes for a candidate are spread among people of his coalition. So unscrupulous parties ask celebrities like Tiririca to run not because they want him in Congress, but because the votes he gets allow them to elect several representatives who did not get enough votes on their own to be elected. So Tiririca's million votes actually elected 3 other representatives, one of them from Lula's Workers' Party, and all accused in corruption scandals. The overwhelming majority of the electorate has never heard of the electoral coefficient, and even if they did they could never understand it. They think of voting for Tiririca as a harmless protest, but by doing that they are actually voting for the worst elements of party politics.

Not so funny now, is it?

In fact, it's even funnier now because it shows how 'serious' the brazilian electoral system is. Do you really imagine developed countries like Sweden having such things as electoral coefficient that allow corrupt politicians remain in the parliament even though they didn't get the necessary votes to do so by 'getting' the votes of another representative through the electoral coalition?

 

[Arwon]

My local council when I lived in Sydney (the City of Botany Bay) has a system whereby 6 councillors were elected from 3 wards. With two councillors elected from each ward, each candidate needed 33% of the vote. Once a candidate was elected, all their votes flow to their second preference candidate, effectively allowing whoever gets 33% of the vote to win all the seats.

We usually have no elections because nobody else nominated. It is so rigged in favour of the Labor Party there was no point anyone else running.

 

[luiz]

In fact, it's even funnier now because it shows how 'serious' the brazilian electoral system is. Do you really imagine developed countries like Sweden having such things as electoral coefficient that allow corrupt politicians remain in the parliament even though they didn't get the necessary votes to do so by 'getting' the votes of another representative through the electoral coalition?

You're preaching to the choir.

Brazil is not a serious country, our democracy is a joke, and I can see why it's funny for a foreigner. If the monster Dilma wins and I get the hell out of here maybe I'll laugh as well. It's not funny however when you're on the receiving end of that. It's not funny to have over half of my income confiscated through numerous taxes to receive in exchange the worst roads in the world (more Brazilians die in the roads each year than American soldiers died during the whole Vietnam War), a public health system which is a complete joke (we have "universal care" but every single Brazilian that can afford it pay private insurers as well and never set foot in a public hospital) and a public education system that international rankings place together with that of Sub-Sahaaran nations (so all Brazilian families that can afford it send their kids to private schools, making a huge sacrifice for that). Our gasoline is among the most expensive in the world, and it also is the worst in the world (and some morons are actually proud of that joke called Petrobras). We pay colossal property taxes but our property is not protected by the police from the action of armed criminals.

At the same time, Lula's son, who in 2002 was a zoo employee making less than 1,000 dollars per month, now owns 30 million dollars farms in São Paulo. The children of the main aide of Dilma Rousseff received bribes to use government money to buy overpriced projects that put together could exceed 100 million dollars.

And our people is too ignorant to even understand what is going on. A nation of illiterates.

 

[gangleri2001]

It's getting better

Brazil’s most voted federal Deputy could be barred from Congress for illiteracy

The candidate who won the most votes in Brazil’s Sunday general elections, Tiririca the clown, will have to show electoral authorities that he can read and write to avoid his electoral victory being annulled, an elections official said.

Electoral Judge Aloisio Sergio Rezende Silveira received Tuesday a complaint from the prosecutor’s office accusing Tiririca of falsifying the document he presented to show that he is not illiterate, a requirement for all candidates who have no record of studies in Brazil.

“The examination by the Criminology Institute reveals a difference in handwriting, which leads to a reasonable doubt about his eligibility to be elected,” the judge said in a statement released by the Sao Paulo Regional Electoral Tribunal.

Brazil bars illiterates from running for office, so that candidates who cannot show any record of studies must present a declaration that they know how to read and write, written in their own hand.

The prosecutor’s office presented a document supposedly written by Tiririca in handwriting different from that on the declaration saying he is not illiterate, which, according to handwriting experts involved in the accusation, could have been written by another person.

Tiririca, whose real name is Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, will have a period of 10 days to present his defence, the judge said.

The forging of documents in elections is punishable by up to five years in jail plus the payment of a fine, the statement said.

Tiririca, a member of the minority Party of the Republic, or PR, was the biggest winner in all Brazil Sunday for the lower house of Congress, garnering 1,353,820 votes.

He also topped the result obtained four years ago by the candidate who won the most votes in those elections, Paulo Maluf, who polled 739,000 votes. In all the country’s democratic history, Tiririca trails only the late lawmaker Eneas Carneiro, who in the 2002 elections tallied 1.5 million votes.

The clown, who has no experience at all in politics, based his campaign on his ignorance about how government institutions work and his dislike of the work legislators are doing.

One of his electoral slogans actually said “What does a federal lawmaker do? Really, I have no idea, but vote for me and I’ll let you know.”

Another tag line in his campaign ads asks for votes with the argument that Brazilian politics “couldn’t be worse than they are now.

”Born in 1965 in the north-eastern state of Ceara, Tiririca is a personality known in Brazil for his antics on the TV comedy program “Show do Tom.”

http://en.mercopress.com/2010/10/06...-could-be-barred-from-congress-for-illiteracy

 

[Terxpahseyton]

At the same time, Lula's son, who in 2002 was a zoo employee making less than 1,000 dollars per month, now owns 30 million dollars farms in São Paulo. The children of the main aide of Dilma Rousseff received bribes to use government money to buy overpriced projects that put together could exceed 100 million dollars.

So where is the news paper making a whole lot of money printing this? This is one of the best things to let politicians look bad.

 

[luiz]

So where is the news paper making a whole lot of money printing this? This is one of the best things to let politicians look bad.

The press avoids touching Lula or his family directly because he has the aura of "untouchable" to a lot of people. His son's sudden and mysterious wealth was the focus of several news pieces, though.

The case of the sons of former Minister Erenice Guerra, main aide of Dilma Rousseff, were widely publicised. In fact, their corruption is considered one of the key reasons why she failed to win the elections in the first round. They are being criminally persecuted, but have refused to asnwer any question after their corruption was proven, to avoid damaging Dilma's campaign even more.

 

[TheLastOne36]

You're preaching to the choir.

Brazil is not a serious country, our democracy is a joke, and I can see why it's funny for a foreigner. If the monster Dilma wins and I get the hell out of here maybe I'll laugh as well. It's not funny however when you're on the receiving end of that. It's not funny to have over half of my income confiscated through numerous taxes to receive in exchange the worst roads in the world (more Brazilians die in the roads each year than American soldiers died during the whole Vietnam War), a public health system which is a complete joke (we have "universal care" but every single Brazilian that can afford it pay private insurers as well and never set foot in a public hospital) and a public education system that international rankings place together with that of Sub-Sahaaran nations (so all Brazilian families that can afford it send their kids to private schools, making a huge sacrifice for that). Our gasoline is among the most expensive in the world, and it also is the worst in the world (and some morons are actually proud of that joke called Petrobras). We pay colossal property taxes but our property is not protected by the police from the action of armed criminals.

At the same time, Lula's son, who in 2002 was a zoo employee making less than 1,000 dollars per month, now owns 30 million dollars farms in São Paulo. The children of the main aide of Dilma Rousseff received bribes to use government money to buy overpriced projects that put together could exceed 100 million dollars.

And our people is too ignorant to even understand what is going on. A nation of illiterates.

Aside from Gasoline and Income Taxes, this sounds like your talking about Venezuela.

 

[Arwon]

Brazil bars illiterates from running for office

That's... wacky.

 

[innonimatu]

At least they now (since 1985!) have a right to vote. Also, they (and those under 18 or over 70) are not compelled to vote (i.e., fined if they do not vote), unlike the rest of the citizens.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Well the literacy rate is 88.6%. So that means that about one tenth of the population is more or less excluded from politics.
No sure if that is bad or not considering the cause.

@luiz
Thanks for the info.

 

[Arwon]

At least they now (since 1985!) have a right to vote. Also, they (and those under 18 or over 70) are not compelled to vote (i.e., fined if they do not vote), unlike the rest of the citizens.

However, I approve of compulsory voting!

 

[Airstrike92]

That guy looks like Miguel Prado from Dexter.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

The candidate who won the most votes in Brazil’s Sunday general elections, Tiririca the clown

Brazil elected a clown to Congress?

Sounds like y'all are trying to be more like the United States.

 

[gangleri2001]

Does anybody know if Tiririca got barred?

 

[innonimatu]

Not yet decided. Apparently the court is having a hard time finding out whether he is illiterate...

The real difficulty, of course, is in upholding the constitutional prohibition of illiterate candidates when one has just won a election with more votes than anyone else. Hard to throw away one and a half million votes and deny the will of the voters, on this technicality. Harder even to argue that they wouldn't have voted the same way if they knew he was illiterate. Is Brazil a democracy, or is it not? Do citizens have equal political rights, or some are better than others?
Whoever wrote that into the constitution was a greater fool than any brazilian illiterate can be.

 

[Shekwan]

How come brazilians allow such a show in their elections?

Everyone makes a show of their elections.

Didn't you see the Land is Power dude behind Gordon Brown last May? Joke candidate.

Also this guy here in Ireland:

And he got freaking elected!

Even in the US, that paragon of freedom and democracy, has a lot of joke candidates this year. I find those Rand Paul comedians the best. Stamping on a dykes head is always entertaining.