Peruvian candidates for Congress are taking extreme measures to gain votes, including stripping naked and staging hunger strikes.

Reuters reports that a record 2,500 people are competing for 120 seats in the April 9 election.

Overweight candidate Abelardo Gutierrez has been marching through Lima wearing only his underwear. He has painted his toenails the Peruvian national colors of red and white.

Three other candidates paraglided in precariously low winds with a message of "jumping into the vacuum of populist politics."

Incumbent Gustavo Pacheco began a hunger strike from his seat in Congress as a protest against presidential candidate Ollanta Humala.