Ukrainians casting their ballots next month may be forgiven for thinking they are being asked to vote for their favorite Star Wars character — Yoda, Chewbacca, Padme, and no less than six Darth Vaders will be running for the right to sit in the country's top legislature.
News site Ukrainskaya Pravda reported Tuesday that six Darth Vaders, all running for the Internet Party of Ukraine, had been registered to run in the upcoming parliamentary election — the first such vote since the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych in February.
The party, founded in 2007, also ran a Darth Vader candidate in the presidential election in May, though the former Jedi was forced to concede victory to Petro Poroshenko after being disqualified when monitors failed to verify his identity .
Stepan Mikhailovich Chewbacca, Padme Nikolayevna Amidale and Master Vladimirovich Yoda will also be lining up on the ballot paper for the right to win a seat in the Verkhovna Rada next month, tabloid LifeNews reported Monday, citing Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission.
Master Vladimirovich Yoda boasts an impressive academic background, having graduated from the Institute of Technical Telephysics and Darth Viktorovich Vader heads his own company "Dark Side of the Force," the report said.
The parliamentary elections are due to take place in Ukraine on Oct. 26, with President Poroshenko's political bloc on course to win about 26.9 percent of the vote, according to a recent poll by the Ukrainian Democratic Initiatives Foundation.
Success in the parliamentary elections will give Poroshenko a boost to continue his policy in the east of Ukraine and push his country away from Russia and toward European integration.
