Ukrainian activists, Darth Vader run for open parliament seats

World Today

Ukrainians head to the polls this weekend in the first parliamentary election since protests overthrew the former president last winter. The vote is likely to usher in a new class of politicians. CCTV America’s Kate Parkinson reports.

In Kiev’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti square, makeshift memorials remember the victims of Ukraine’s biggest upheaval in decades. Dozens were killed in the protests that forced pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich from power, and the victims are far from forgotten.

But now, eight months later, activists who stood on the Maidan and were part of the driving force for change, said they are frustrated that their dreams have not been realized.

Real change will require a complete overthrow of a corrupt system, many activists said, and voting in a new parliament is the next step in their revolution.

Taking their fight from the streets to the halls of power, dozens of Maidan activists are running for seats in parliament hoping to spearhead reform and turn Ukraine into a prosperous European state.

Darth Vadar is vying for a seat in Ukraine’s parliament. Dressed in full Star Wars regalia and flanked by “storm troopers,” the leader of the Internet Party, who has legally changed his name to Darth Vader, is wooing voters with promises to turn Ukraine into a “galactic empire.”

Pollsters predict he has little chance of success, but that hasn’t stopped him pulling out all the stops on the campaign trail.