This is how newbies try to fish some merits because they think once they open up a topic many members will give some merits to the topic they open up here. So for this its better to report it to moderator for them to asses this kind of action they made.
This unusual way but really possible. Most newbie that do merit bait are targetting beginner's and help section and post there tips and experience. I'm not a fan of Politics board but that's the board that has low chance for you to get some merit especially if you are just starting a copy paste news or political topics but yeah since most of his post in a form of thread, he might be just fishing merit or starting new thread for his alt account have a post quota.