In Brazil, where nicknames are everything, voters can now opt for a congressional candidate who goes by the name Barack Obama.

Claudio Henrique dos Anjos is running for congress in elections on 5 October for the ruling Workers Party.

A court has allowed the 45-year-old to run in the election with ballots that read "Barack Obama".

On his website, he goes by the longer name Claudio Henrique Barack Obama.

He formally presented his candidacy yesterday, and in the short time allotted to him on television, he launched the brief slogan "Vote for Barack Obama!"

Electoral laws in Brazil give candidates leeway to choose the name they want to go by in campaigns.

People's nicknames are almost always more well known than their real names in Brazil, where Edison Arantes do Nascimento is better known as Pele.

Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva eventually incorporated his nickname Lula into his formal identity.

In this election there are candidates who go by such monikers as "O Nojento" (The Disgusting One) and another who calls himself "Pijama".

Prosecutors tried to block Dos Anjos from using the name Obama but a court approved it, saying it was harmless.

The 5 October polls will renew part of the Congress as well as electing a new national president and state governors.