Brazil – from www.guardian.co.uk – It’s an unusual campaign pledge: a strip club in every town. That, however, is what Adriely Fatal, a stripper and “erotic actress” from north-eastern Brazil, is promising voters as she hits the campaign trail in search of a place in parliament.

With general elections taking place in October, four adult entertainers are preparing to battle it out for a seat in Ceara state’s local assembly, aiming to rock the political establishment by forming a powerful “sex lobby” within government.

Leading Ceara’s campanha erótica is 23-year-old Fatal, who also promises to focus on hospitals and education and is campaigning outside the local football stadium, where she dances on an open-backed truck dressed in skin-tight shorts.

“My campaign is different to the others. I’m using sensuality to attract votes – I’m trying to attract young people and men,” Fatal, a former stripper in Boate Tropical, one of the state capital Fortaleza’s most popular erotic clubs, told the Guardian.

“I campaign outside football stadiums, in squares and bars, in car garages, on the beach. I’m going to concentrate on healthcare and on showing people that just because I use tight clothes it doesn’t mean that I can’t do a proper job,” added Fatal, a member of the Christian Workers party, who also counts waiters and taxi drivers among her support base and cites the leftist presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff as one of her political idols.

Fatal, whose real name is Maria Isabel Gomes Cardoso, claims that the latest opinion polls show she already has around 10,000 votes in the bag. If she can increase that to 12,000, her campaign manager, who was inspired by the Hungarian porn star La Cicciolina, elected to Italy’s parliament in 1987, believes Fatal will soon become Fatal MP.

Fatal is joined on the campaign trail by the Democrats party candidate Maria Adelina Nascimento, AKA Katia Heffner. Named after Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, she runs a popular swingers club in Fortaleza.

Another adult entertainer, nicknamed Deborah Soft, is running for office with the slogan “Vote with pleasure”.

Brazil’s presidential election is also heating up with the two frontrunners, Rousseff and the opposition candidate Jose Serra, clashing in television debates. Rousseff, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s chosen successor, now appears to be pulling away from the pack, with latest polls giving her around 45% of the vote. To achieve a first round win on 3 October Rousseff needs 50%. Most analysts now believe that only a major blunder or political scandal could see Serra overcome his opponent.ENDS