Reuters reports that with over 2,500 people running for 120 seats in Peru’s Congress, candidates have felt it necessary to engage in a variety of stupid stunts to get any attention at all.

Some have chained themselves to railings outside Peru’s Palace of Justice as a protest against the front-runner, Ollanta Humala, a former military man who has been accused of human-rights abuses.  But that is lame compared with Gustavo Pacheco, running for re-election, who is conducting a hunger strike while refusing to leave his seat in Congress.  Literally — he’s sleeping in it.

Three other candidates went paragliding off the coast near Lima, saying the stunt was to caution against "jumping into the vacuum of populist politics."  Whatever that means.  And according to Reuters News, Abelardo Gutierrez, "a chronically overweight singer, has taken to parading through central Lima wearing only his underwear, with toenails painted the Peruvian national colors of red and white, winning him ample media coverage."

I think that strategy might give Bill Frist’s campaign a jump-start.  Don’t you?

Surprisingly, Peru’s Congress is widely viewed as ineffective and corrupt, and consistently has single-digit approval ratings.

Link: Reuters via My Way News.