Darth Vadar’s presidential ambitions thwarted again in Ukraine
PUBLISHED : Monday, 27 October, 2014, 10:05pm
UPDATED : Monday, 27 October, 2014, 10:05pm
Agence France-Presse in Kiev
Foiled again: Darth Vadar aka Viktor Shevchenko. Photo: AP
Darth Vader is in trouble in Ukraine - again.
A candidate posing as the iconic villain from the Star Wars movies already had his Ukrainian presidential ambitions thwarted by suspicious authorities in May.
But the scary man from the dark side of the Force was not going down without a fight. Six Darth Vaders managed to get their names registered for the snap parliamentary ballot staged across the war-torn former Soviet republic on Sunday.
They all represented the tiny Pirate Party of Ukraine - one of more than 40 groups that have sprung up worldwide in defence of internet freedoms and limits on copyright laws. The pirates had plans to nominate him for the health ministry post.
The Sith Lord who drove up to the polling station in Kiev on Sunday atop a black "Darth Mobile" refused to take off his black mask to prove his earthly identity to the nervous-looking lady at the registration table.
"I thought this might happen," the man in the shiny plastic helmet told reporters and a crowd of curious onlookers with their cellphone cameras in hand. "But I am still disappointed. My rights have been violated again."
The man behind the mask is Viktor Shevchenko. Social media sites were flooded with the alleged mug shot Darth Vader submitted when registering his candidacy. It shows a man with a receding hairline staring glumly at the camera in what looks to be the top of his Darth Vader suit. Information accompanying the partially cropped picture shows that he was born in 1987 and is the director of a small private firm.
