Uganda is not the only country experiencing an unique electoral season. The United States, the beacon of democracy, recently completed the mid-term electoral cycle in which Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives. There was a fair share of clean and competitive campaigns with intelligent candidates from both sides, but of course there were some circus acts involved. Fortunately, many of the candidates and campaigns that were better suited for the limelight of Barnum & Bailey’s can now only bask in their former glory of national attention and not enjoy the limelight (maybe better phrased as the puke green light) of Washington, DC or their respective state capitols.
One of the up and coming global powers recently completed an election cycle as well, but in Brazil, some candidates, Francisco Silva in particular, have literally stepped out from the circus tent and into the Parliamentary halls of Brasilia. Silva, better known as Tiririca (Grumpy in Portuguese) the clown received more votes than any other Parliamentarian candidate. Although electing a clown sounds crazy enough, what makes this story even more interesting is that Tiririca may be illiterate. Due to Brazil’s relatively high rate of illiteracy, laws require that all elected officials must be literate in order to take office. Democracy and illiteracy are now clashing in Brazil and the only way to move forward is to test Tiririca’s reading and writing. Tiririca was tested on Thursday 11/11, but results have yet to be revealed (at the time this post was written), so stay on the lookout to see if a clown was elected to the Brazilian Parliament.
Maybe this is a good sign for Brazil’s future; although the U.S. did not vote a witch into Senate, Americans did vote an Aqua Buddha into the Senate. Brazil, you’re almost there, next time you vote, don’t vote for the clown, be more creative and vote for a mythical figure.
The 913 Project 
