Brazil clown Tiririca cleared for congress

[Judi Lynn]

1 December 2010 Last updated at 14:30 ET
Brazil clown Tiririca cleared for congress

A Brazilian clown who was elected to congress in October has had the last laugh, after a court ruled that he did meet the literacy requirement for public office.

Francisco Oliveira Silva - known as Tiririca or Grumpy - won more votes than any other candidate for congress.

His victory was challenged after newspapers reported that he could not read or write.

But he has now passed a basic literacy test, a judge in Sao Paulo said.

Tiririca showed "a minimum of intellect concerning the content of a text despite difficulties in writing", Judge Aloisio Sergio Rezende Silveira said.

More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11891910

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From October:

Tiririca: Illiterate Clown Elected to Brazilian Congress
Share: by Jordan Yerman | October 4, 2010 at 10:48 am

Brazil has spoken, and it is sending an illiterate clown to Congress. Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, known as Tiririca, got more than twice as many votes as his nearest competitor. "Illiterate clown" is not meant as a pejorative: Tiririca is a professional clown who cannot read.

When news emerged that Tiririca cannot read, his campaign somehow survived. His campaign slogan was "It Can't Get Any Worse", and the public went for it: Tiririca's only campaign promise was to tell the public what congressional representatives actually did on a day-to-day basis.

Francisco Silva's campaign isn't entirely a joke, and it's more chess than checkers: Under Brazilian law, Tiririca can assign excess votes from his own results to other candidates in his coalition, which can shore up overall results for that political group.

http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/tiririca-illiterate-clown-elected-brazilian-congress-2691523.html

http://bluenred.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2010/10/tiririca.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_WkWj6xsdXwE/SBEtOZOIimI/AAAAAAAAIbQ/Jc2E1edofHA/s320/tiririca.JPG

http://www.fator4.kit.net.nyud.net:8090/fotos/tiririca.jpg

Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva - "Tirica"

[Judi Lynn]

1. Brazilian clown allowed to go to Congress

Brazilian clown allowed to go to Congress
By TALES AZZONI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 1, 2010; 2:53 PM

SAO PAULO -- The congressman-elect may be a clown, but at least he can read and write.

The man who won more votes than any other candidate for Brazil's lower house has been cleared to take his seat because a judge has ruled he can read and write well enough to act as a congressman.

Judge Aloisio Silveira ruled on Wednesday that Francisco Silva did not lie when he signed a document swearing that he is literate.

Silva, who became famous as the clown Tiririca - "Grumpy" in Portuguese - received about 1.3 million votes in elections last October. But critics suggested he was illiterate and Silveira ruled there were discrepancies between the handwriting on Silva's application to run for Congress, on the document in which he swears he can read and write and in autographs he gave to fans.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/01/AR2010120104066.html