Somewhere in Japan some time ago, there was an attempt at getting a robot elected as a mayor. While this was rather very interesting, there have as well been many non-humans that have contested elections before, despite the fact that elections afford people the opportunity to select their leaders.
The very last two jobs that many of us would have thought possible for robots to take away from humans are religious works and politics. Interestingly enough, with Buddhist robots that are used in Japan for funeral rites, we have seen them encroach beyond the religious lines and now they have moved to political lines as the new campaign rooting for people to vote a robot for mayor in an election in Japan.
Named Michihito Matsuda, this artificial intelligence became the first in the history of mankind to have contested any form of an election after it took part in the April 15, 2018 elections. This has been described as the future of politics and elections.
The robot which had a Twitter account at the time took to the platform to announce its candidacy for the post of mayor of the Japanese town of Tama in western Tokyo.
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If you are wondering about the gender of the robot, it seemed to be a woman, and it had made a lot of promises as regards good governance. That was according to Michihito Matsuda (a human) who sponsored the AI. He also assured us that the first time that Artificial intelligence is coming into politics, it would ensure that there is balance and fairness.
The manner in which it promised to govern was to take wishes from the people and through that, it will calculate and come up with the best plan of action. Hence if the people had voted the robot for mayor, it would gather data from them and design policies and other things about governance.
Unfortunately, the Robot lost the election by emerging third in the race which was won by the incumbent leader, Hiroyuki Abe who got close to 35,000 of the votes while the second candidate took almost 4500 votes leaving Michihito Matsuda with only 4000. Having lost the election, the robot took to the site created for it to thank people for their support and state that it only lost the election because it didn’t have the power to win it.
Before Michihito Matsuda the robot lost the elections, its founder, Michihito Matsuda the human had also massively lost the previous elections and probably thought with the robot, victory would be easier.
Other Non-humans That Have Contested Elections
1. Duke the Dog (Mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota)
This dog was a veteran politician who was voted as much as 3 times as mayor of a town in Minnesota. The Dog was 9 years old when it was elected for the third time in a landslide victory in 2016 to retain its position as the mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota.
While commenting on his victory, residents of the town said there was no one that contested against the Great Pyrenees, following the achievements it was able to record as a mayor.
The first time that Duke the Dog got elected to office was in 2014, and since then, it had remained the mayor of the small town with a thousand people. People in the town paid a dollar each to vote, but they didn’t mind since the dog had a very high approval rating.
Duke had a deputy whose name was Steve Sorenson.
Unfortunately, the dog mayor passed away on Feb. 21 2019 at the age of 13.
2. Brynneth Pawltro (Pitbull)- Mayor of Rabbit Hash
While it was easy for Duke the Dog to get elected with no opposition, it was not so much of a ride for Brynneth Pawltro. The dog was forced to carry out a well-orchestrated campaign against other candidates in 2017 to get elected for the fourth time as the mayor of a town in Kentucky.
In the fiercely contested election in which Brynneth Pawltro won by a landslide, the 3-year-old pit bull ran against 4 other candidates; a puss, an ill-tempered chicken, a veteran politician donkey, and a charismatic little boy.
There a some who had issues with the elections because residents of the town were allowed to vote as many times as they wanted for a charge of a dollar. However, none of the candidates questioned the legitimacy of the balloting since they had all agreed with the process from the start.
In November 2020, the Rabbit Hash mayor left office together with his trusted right-hand woman, Jordie Bamfort.
3. Stubbs (cat) – Mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska
Stubbs was a very interesting cat that got elected as a mayor of a small Alaskan town, Talkeetna which had less than a thousand people. It got elected in 1997 the same year it was born.
The cat was given up for adoption after its birth because it had no tail, but it soon won the hearts of the people who chose it as their leader. This was even as it was stated that before Stubbs, the town had no mayor.
In its time in office, the mayor survived what may as well be described as assassination attempts after it was attacked by a dog in 2013. The attack left the cat with a punctured lung and fractured sternum. Residents raised over $3,000 to treat the mayor even as nothing more was heard of the suspect.
Stubbs remained in office until its death in 2017.
4. Macaco Tião (Chimpanzee) – Mayor of Rio De Janeiro
Macaco Tião was a Brazilian Chimpanzee who also doubled as a politician. Rather than for his political will, Macaco came to the limelight, because of his fiery temperament. He was an angry fella who would throw mud and feces at people that came to see it including other politicians like Marcello Alencar who was the governor of the state, making it clear it had no time for bullshit.
Named after the patron saint of Rio De Janeiro, Macaco Tião was listed as one of the candidates in the elections of 1988 when a news magazine made a joke about having the great chimp’s name on the ballot in place of null votes.
Macaco gave other contestants a run for their money by pulling 400,000 votes to come 3rd in the election that featured 12 candidates.
When it finally died at the age of 34 in 1996, the city was officially in mourning for 3 days and the flag was brought halfway down. Today, the famous Chimp has a monument in Rio de Janeiro’s Zoo.
5. Pigasus J. Pig (Pig for President of the United States)
Among non-humans that have contested in elections, Pigasus may probably be the most interesting case, even though he didn’t get to stand in the elections.
In the elections that produced Nixon as President of the United States, the Youth International Party nominated the most unlikely candidate ever to run for the president of the United States in theatrical politics, a pig by the name of Pigasus J. Pig.
Yippies as members of the party referred to themselves, bought the pig from a farmer and brought it to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago where they announced its candidacy.
Unfortunately, Pigasus and the members of the party got arrested during the nomination and that became the end of the political journey of Pigasus.
