Brazilians say NO to FAKE Obamas. They would vote for the real one
At least eight “Barack Obamas” who borrowed the Democratic presidential candidate’s name to run in Brazilian local elections lost.
Brazilian law allows candidates to put any name on the ballot as long as it isn’t offensive. This time around, a number of candidates chose “Barack Obama.” Some used the name Bin Laden, and others resorted to French soccer player Zinedine Zidane. No one was known to use the name of McCain, the Republican presidential candidate
But if Brazilian could vote for US president, Democrat Barack Obama would win by a landslide, according to a survey that was part of a global poll.
In fact if the whole world could vote, Obama would win by a landslide in all but one of the 17 countries polled by Reader’s Digest magazine.
The odd one out was the United States where Republican John McCain was preferred by a narrow margin, the magazine said in an article posted on its website.
However, the surveys – with about 1000 participants in each country – were conducted from June 2 to July 7 and since then Senator Obama has been leading in opinion polls in the US.
Some Brazilian candidates mistakenly think they can attract more voters by using the quirk in the ballot law, said political scientist David Fleischer said.
“They are opportunists trying to use popular figures to their advantage,” Fleischer said. “It doesn’t work.”