Political candidate forced to run against doppelgangers

Political candidate forced to run against doppelgangers who also stole his name.

In Russia one opposition party candidate who is running for a municipal position is now competing against two people who have resorted to shady practices and have changed their name to match his. They have gone one step further than changing their names though, and have copied his physical appearance in a bid to confuse voters.

The practice of changing names is a common one in Russia but this normally only extends to surnames. In the case of Boris Vishnevsky, his opponents have changed their full names and also altered their appearances.

The voting poster for the district can be seen with three candidates side-by-side however it is difficult to see who is the original Boris.

Boris commented: “I have never seen anything like it. This is all done to disorient voters, so that they confuse the fake with the real, and instead of the real Vishnevsky they vote for one of the fakes.”

The shady tactic used normally aims to split votes between two candidates with the same name. This gives a further candidate a better chance of winning.

Boris has claimed that this is “political fraud” but in Russian law surprisingly it is legal that candidates are allowed to change their names to match that of their opponents.

In other quirky news, Marathon winner disqualified for wearing the wrong shoes at Vienna Marathon.

Many runners put on a stunning performance on Sunday, September 12, for the Vienna Marathon, but one unlucky runner came in first before later being disqualified.

Ethiopia’s Derara Hurisa was disqualified after the race as he had worn “the wrong shoes”.

Hurisa is only 24 years old and made it across the finish line 3 seconds faster than the next placed runner. After the event though he was disqualified after it was uncovered that the soles on his shoes were one centimetre thicker than the maximum permitted for the race.

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