AMERICAS 
Bin Laden and Obama miss out in Brazil vote
Tuesday, 7 October, 2008
Ballot box. (Getty Images)
Barack Obama, Bin Laden, Zidane and Father Christmas all failed in their bids to win local elections held in Brazil over the weekend, voting officials say.
Brazilian candidates who had been running under those easily recognisable pseudonyms on ballots in different parts of the country all found democracy an impossible hurdle to overcome, according to the Superior Electoral Court.
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In all there were four would-be politicians who entered under the name "Barack Obama" or variations of the name of the black US presidential candidate -- considered a hero in ethnically mixed Brazil -- but none managed to secure a council seat.
The six "Bin Ladens" running also found victory as elusive as the location of the leader of al-Qaeda.
Zidanes fail to score
A couple of Zidanes didn't score as well with voters as French former football star Zinedine Zidane used to on the field.
Father Christmas did reasonably well in the northern city of Fortaleza, but ultimately couldn't wriggle all the way through the electoral chimney.
Another failed candidate pushing the limits was Mama, a 103-year-old woman who was the oldest to put her name on a ticket.
Age, though, proved triumphal in the case of Jair Vieira, a 73-year-old candidate in the southern town of Dom Cavalcanti who got the exact same number of votes - 1,919 - as the mayor he was seeking to replace.
Under Brazil's election rules, the oldest candidate in that situation wins. And that was bad news for the 42-year-old incumbent.
Source: AFP/SBS
Brazilian candidates who had been running under those easily recognisable pseudonyms on ballots in different parts of the country all found democracy an impossible hurdle to overcome, according to the Superior Electoral Court.
Click here for more off-beat stories
In all there were four would-be politicians who entered under the name "Barack Obama" or variations of the name of the black US presidential candidate -- considered a hero in ethnically mixed Brazil -- but none managed to secure a council seat.
The six "Bin Ladens" running also found victory as elusive as the location of the leader of al-Qaeda.
Zidanes fail to score
A couple of Zidanes didn't score as well with voters as French former football star Zinedine Zidane used to on the field.
Father Christmas did reasonably well in the northern city of Fortaleza, but ultimately couldn't wriggle all the way through the electoral chimney.
Another failed candidate pushing the limits was Mama, a 103-year-old woman who was the oldest to put her name on a ticket.
Age, though, proved triumphal in the case of Jair Vieira, a 73-year-old candidate in the southern town of Dom Cavalcanti who got the exact same number of votes - 1,919 - as the mayor he was seeking to replace.
Under Brazil's election rules, the oldest candidate in that situation wins. And that was bad news for the 42-year-old incumbent.
Source: AFP/SBS
