World's Most Bizarre Political Candidates

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5 Adolf Lu Hitler Marak (India) “Maybe my parents liked the name and hence christened me Hitler” Adolf Lu Hitler R. Marak is a politician in the state of Meghalaya, India. A member of the Nationalist Congress Party, he was forest and environment minister in the government of E.K. Mawlong and then cooperation minister under F.A. Khonglam. He lost his seat in the state assembly in the February 2003 elections. On June 27, 2003, he was arrested on charges of maintaining links with the banned militant group Achik National Volunteers’ Council [1]. He was released on bail about a month later. It may be noted that his name is not particularly curious within Meghalaya, where other local politicians are named Lenin R. Marak, Stalin L. Nangmin, Frankenstein W. Momin, or Tony Curtis Lyngdoh. Hitler Marak told the Hindustan Times: “Maybe my parents liked the name and hence christened me Hitler… I am happy with my name, although I don’t have any dictatorial tendencies.”

6 Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda (Mexico) “The Perpetual candidate”: lost 10 times, yet considered himself to be the legitimate president Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda (1865 - 1925) was a Mexican eccentric who was famous for being a perennial candidate in his country’s presidential elections. Although he never managed to win a significant share of the votes, he considered himself to be the victor every time. He was a candidate ten times: 1892, 1896, 1900, 1904, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1917, 1920 and 1924 and also tried to run for a seat in the Congress of Mexico at least twice. The eccentric Zúñiga never got more than a few votes, but always claimed to have been the victim of fraud and considered himself to be the legitimate president. It was said that Zúñiga honestly believed he was elected by the people, and turned into a popular figure in Mexico City. He was often invited for parties, in restaurants or for other public events, in which the population treated him as if he really were the president.