Source:
BBC News1 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.
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11891910
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.htmlhttp://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" (Emphasis added.)