Person Dressed as Chewbacca Arrested During Election Publicity Stunt in Ukraine

Just weeks before Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens’s release, Ukrainian politicians used Star Wars characters in an attention-grabbing stunt. 

Yesterday, people dressed as Chewbacca and Darth Vader showed up at a polling station in the Black Sea port city of Odessa as part of a campaign of the Ukrainian Internet Party, which has long been using Star Wars characters for promotion.

A video disseminated online shows Chewbacca driving Darth Vader to a polling station as part of a campaign for Vader, nominated by the Internet Party of Ukraine in the mayoral election.

In the video, a traffic police officer asks for the Wookiee’s driving license, and, after the Star Wars characters shows him his empty hands, the officer detains him.

Chewbacca was arrested and fined 170 hryvnas ($7.5) for “malignant resistance to lawful requirements of a police officer,” while Darth Vader was not allowed to vote even though he presented a Ukrainian passport issued to “Darth Ivanovich Vader,” the local news web site Dumskaya reported.

According to the report, Vader’s family, including son Luke and daughter Leia did cast their votes.

The Internet Party of Ukraine first came to the limelight during the country’s presidential and parliamentary election a year ago, in which it put Vader and Yoda on its candidate list and called for free training for all Ukrainian citizens in PC use and foreign languages and abolition of the value added tax.

Last year, the party secured 0.36 percent of the vote, not enough for it to gain a parliamentary seat.

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