An ideal politician

Romanian villagers have voted to re-elect a dead man as their mayor, to prevent his living rival winning.

Neculai Ivascu - who led Voinesti for almost two decades - died from a liver disease on Sunday, too late to cancel the contest.

The village's loyal residents still gave him 23 more votes than his rival, Gheorghe Dobrescu of the ruling National Liberal Party.

"I know he died, but I don't want change," one villager told Romanian TV.

In a controversial decision, the electoral commission declared the runner-up and rival Mr Dobrescu the winner.

Impressive as the election of a dead guy undoubtedly is, it does not quite match the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the wholly fictitious Andre Kasongo Ilunga has been Minister for Foreign Trade since February 2007, heroically overcoming the drawbacks generally associated with non-existence. As I remarked on Ilunga's case, politicians like Messrs Ilunga and Ivascu would probably be a great improvement on our own current crop of living, breathing ones. They'd cost less for a start!