Darth Vader, previously known as Viktor Shevchenko, the leader of the Ukrainian Internet Party. Photo / AP
Darth Vader, previously known as Viktor Shevchenko, the leader of the Ukrainian Internet Party. Photo / AP
Pro-European parties look to have swept Ukraine's first parliamentary vote since the revolution that toppled Viktor Yanukovych's Government in February.
While yesterday's election leaves President Petro Poroshenko in a weaker position than expected, three centrist pro-European parties appear to have taken a dominant position.
Early exit polls put the PoroshenkoBloc, an alliance of pro-European candidates loyal to the President, on roughly 26 per cent of the vote. The People's Front, a new party uniting several serving ministers led by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was put at 21 per cent. A new party, Self Reliance, led by the popular mayor of Lvivi Andri Sadoviy, came in third place with roughly 13 per cent.
The election was a disaster for one of Ukraine's best-known names, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. With exit polls giving her Fatherland party just 6 per cent, she will have to await the count to know if she and her star candidate, Nadia Savchenko, a helicopter pilot imprisoned in Russia after being captured by separatists in eastern Ukraine, have made it over the 5 per cent threshold required to take seats.
It was equally disappointing for the far-right, with the nationalist Svoboda Party and Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party both headed for single-figure results.
The election was widely seen as a test of confidence in Poroshenko.
Twenty-seven seats representing about five million voters in Crimea, annexed by Russia in April, and separatist-controlled areas of Ukraine, will stay empty.
A candidate posing as the iconic villain from the Star Wars movies already had his Ukrainian presidential ambitions thwarted by authorities in May. But the villain from the dark side of the Force was not going down without a fight. Darth Viktorovych Vader, real name Viktor Shevchenko, drove up to a polling station in Kiev atop a black "Darth Mobile" and refused to take off his black mask to prove his earthly identity. He was turned away from a polling station without having voted.
An impressive six Darth Vaders managed to get their names registered for the snap parliamentary ballot yesterday.
They 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.
