Barack Obama in Brazilian Elections!

At last the dates for the Lok Sabha Election have been announced by the Election Commission!
I am reminded of the recently concluded (October 2008) Municipal Elections in Brazil. It is very interesting to know the peculiar happenings during the elections in Brazil.

The present President Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is the most popular President in Brazil. He has uplifted the life of billions of down trodden in the country with millions of social welfare schemes; brought inflation and unemployment under control; implemented fiscal measures to prop up the economy with a huge credit boom.

With his effective administration President Lula has an approval rate as high as 80% which was unheard-of in Brazil. For the Brazilian masses, Lula is magic name!

The political system in Brazil allows candidates of different parties to claim link with any other parties or personalities including the ruling parties. Ideological differences are buried conveniently against power of personalities. Now that President Lula is most powerful and popular, majority of the candidates try to link their names with Lula so that people may favour them with their mandate.

In Brazil (too!), the parties ruling the country with a coalition government at the national level, may contest against each other in state level & municipal elections. Nevertheless the opposition candidates project their image as close friends of President Lula to woo the voters!

One more odd feature of the Brazilian election is that the candidates are allowed to have any nick name in the ballot papers. For the present President, 'Lula' was a childhood name which he adopted at the time of election. In the recent municipal election also, several candidates adopted the name Lula in their names. Many candidates adopted the names of Barack Obama, Bin Laden while some adopted weird names like Christ of Jerusalem and Kung Fu Fatty to be on the victory mode!

The rules are not stringent in Brazil to compete elections as people's representatives. School drop-outs, persons involved in police cases, etc., compete in elections. Their aim is to get elected by any unscrupulous or unprincipled manner.

The results of the above municipal election were bit surprising. In spite of the public confidence enjoyed by President Lula, his Worker Party (PT) came second in the October election!

If you feel Brazilian elections are very similar to our Indian elections, it is your own view!

I believe our Indian politicians have a lot more to learn from their Brazilian counterparts!