Non-human electoral candidate

Non-human electoral candidates have been found in a number of countries.

Often, the candidacies are a means of casting a protest vote or satirizing the political system.

Electoral regulations may explicitly require candidates to be human (or equivalent wording), or they may require candidates to do things which animals cannot reasonably do (such as sign their names legibly on legal forms); most constituencies require candidates to be of the age of a legal adult, which eliminates many animals whose life expectancies usually make them too young to ever qualify.

The 2013 Black Mirror episode "The Waldo Moment" explores the concept of a cartoon character electoral candidate.

Several news reports, including one by Chris Cillizza, political reporter for The Washington Post, compared the 2016 Donald Trump political campaign to the episode;[47][48] later, in September 2016, episode writer Charlie Brooker also compared the Trump campaign to The Waldo Moment and predicted Trump would win the 2016 election.

Stubbs , former honorary mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska
A statue of Macaco Tião , a candidate for mayor of Rio de Janeiro, is exhibited at the Rio de Janeiro Zoological Garden
Dustin the Turkey , a puppet, received thousands of votes in Ireland 's 1997 presidential election .
Cosmic horror and 2016 US presidential candidate Cthulhu on the campaign trail