News Digest

The circle is complete: Darth Vader denied in Ukraine vote

The Force was not with Darth Vader this weekend. A candidate in Ukraine’s parliamentary elections who dressed as iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader was turned away from a Kiev polling station on Sunday, after he refused to remove his mask to prove his identity. Vader, who the Central Election Commission said had legally changed his name, is running on the Internet Party of Ukraine’s ticket, along with Chewbacca and a slew of other Star Wars characters. Six other Darth Vaders got their names registered for the snap parliamentary ballot being staged across the war-torn former Soviet republic on Sunday. They all represent 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.

I thought this might happen. But I am still disappointed. My rights have been violated again.

'Darth Vader'

The Sith Lord who was denied in Kiev appears to be a man who identifies himself as Darth Viktorovych Vader but whose real name is Viktor Shevchenko. Social media sites were flooded on Sunday 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.