The midterm elections are about to go down in the U.S., but in Ukraine, voters are trying to decide if they should cast their votes for a certain Sith lord.
The eastern European nation has seen more than its fair share of turbulence this year, fueling Ukrainian Internet Party to satirize the country’s parliamentary elections. They’ve selected not just one but multiple Darth Vaders as their picks for various seats.
The party also created a series of campaign advertisements for all their Vaders. They feature the former Anakin Skywalker romping around the countryside. In one ad, he strums the “Imperial March” on a traditional Ukrainian musical instrument. In another, he takes a black horse for a walk before sticking his lightsaber in the ground and removing his helmet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4wVqDf1xks]
That’s probably a reference to the Vaders’ statuses as dark horse candidates. Indeed, they’ll be facing some tough (and equally interstellar) competition when Ukrainian voters head to the polls on October 26th. For example, other nominees from Odessa, Ukraine’s third-largest city, include Stepan “Chewbacca” Chubakka, Master V. Yoda, and Padme N. Amidala.
In addition to the seven Vaders selected by the UIP, at least five more candidates around the country have filed as “Darth Vader” (they’re all running as independents). This also isn’t the first time the Sith lord has run amok in the world of Ukrainian politics. Last year, activists in Vader costumes tried to enter the country’s Justice Ministry to pester a politician named Oleksandr Lavrynovych.
Back in 2011, a Ukrainian official had a Vader walk into his office to demand a free plot of land. He cited a law stating that citizens have a right to be granted up to 1,000 square meters of property in certain circumstances. What sort of circumstances? After informing the official that he was Darth Vader, the man said that, because local politicians had “switched to the Dark Side,” he deserved some complimentary real estate where he could park his “space cruiser.”