Most Votes For A Chimp In A Political Campaign
In the 1988 mayoral elections campaign in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the anti-establishment "Brazilian Banana Party" presented a chimpanzee called Tião as their candidate.

The name Tião means "Big Uncle" in Portuguese, and the moody monkey (well, ape, to be exact) had the campaign slogan "Vote monkey - get monkey". His candidacy was promoted by the Partido Bananista Brasileiro and the satirical magazine Casseta Planeta, which advertised his cause as that of the last political prisoner of Brazil.

Tião came third out of 12 candidates, taking just over 400,000 votes. He passed away in December 1996, aged 33, at his cage in Rio's zoo.

South Americans are no strangers to creature candidates. In the Sao Paulo State Parliament elections of October 4, 1958, Cacareco the rhinoceros was the most popular candidate with an estimated 100,000 votes (although these were later declared null by the authorities).

Una chiosa personale: non è impossibile che il primate che i bananas brasialiani hanno candidato, mostrasse doti di maggiore umanità,intelligenza e garbo rispetto a qualche "esemplare" candidato ( e magari eletto) da quelli nostrani.