We Brazilians have used eletronic voting machines many times. They are very easy to use, you have only to type your candidate’s number and click the confirm buttom after checking the candidate’s photo that will appear on the machine screen.

   The electronic voting machine doesn’t allow some kind of people to vote for exotic candidates whose candidatures don’t exist as Tião monkey, Cacareco, the hippopotamus and that kind.

   Although electronic voting machines are very modern and fraud-proof, they can’t prevent the naïve electors from voting for weird candidates. There should be sounds of laughters when someone would type the number of that sort of people. It would be fit to their taste. 

   My daughter Drid took my grandson Arthur with her to vote last Sunday. Arthur had access to the voting booth, when his mom was there and it reminded her of her brother, then a boy, leaving the voting booth shouting:”Granny voted for Tranquedo! Granny voted for Tranquedo!“ 

  It happened in 1982 and even the children in our family were fans of Tancredo Neves, the very famous, serious and traditional mineiro (from the state of Minas Gerais) politician, who was the first elected president of Brazil after a long dictatorial regime. Of course, I’m unable to remember whatever happened in a recent past ( old-aging woman), but my daughters, mainly Adriana, took for them the easy task of bringing back memories of their childhood, their funny stories and that kind of stuff they like to make me remember. 

   Returning to the issue “serious politician”, I can only add that many of us, Brazilian people, are extremely disappointed by the politicians who crowd the Brazilian Congress, the Government and all that, and the ones who came on the scene lately, misleading the naïve Brazilian electors, any of them almost illiterate who vote for them. It’s a pity that singers, footballers and some people like them, unfamiliar with politics, have run for deputies, senators in Brazil. What do they think about ? Who should we blame? These celebrities who had already their glory days? Or the political parties which use them to get votes from foolish electors?

In the 2010 Brazilian election, some people of the state of São Paulo elected Tiririca to make laws, I mean, he will be a Federal Deputy. Tiririca, a clown, well-known and loved nationally, but almost illiterate was manipulated by very smart politicians and his amount of votes will favour even the Lula’s party, according to what I’ve heard. São Paulo has 30ish million electors and about one million or thereabouts voted for Tiririca. Why did they do it? Is this a kind of reflection from Brazilian Culture? Is this a kind of protest? Brazil has been an object of ridicule in the newspapers around the world (have a look at these sites:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2010/10/brazils_presidential_election_0

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/04/ap/strange/main6925513.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;1

   I only have to say that there are many knowledgeable Brazilians really interested in making this country a better place to live.