Julian Assange has taken his first steps towards a career in Australian politics, submitting (not in person, obviously) an application for electoral enrollment in Victoria. There has already been
plenty of speculation that the WikiLeaks founder was headed for a career in politics but this latest development confirms that Assange is intending to run for the Senate in Victoria at the September 14 federal election as the lead candidate of a newly formed
WikiLeaks Party.
While WikiLeaks has yet to be registered with the Australian electoral commission, the proposed party has already drawn
strong support in the polls, making a play for voters who seek a party concerned with
transparency in government and politics and would counter growing intrusions to citizen’s privacy.
The fact that Assange is not likely to return to Australia in the foreseeable future sets the scene for an unconventional campaign, but one which is well within the rules as The Age reports.
Australian citizens living overseas can enrol to vote as an overseas
elector, and consequently run as a Senate candidate if they left
Australia within the past three years and intend to return within six
years of their date of departure.
Mr Assange has indicated that if elected and unable to return
to Australia to take up a seat in the Senate, a WikiLeaks Party nominee
would fill the vacancy.
Having not been in the country since 2010, there are fears that Assange may be out of touch with the needs of his constituency. In addition to his political transparency schtick, suggestions have been made that Assange focus on election buzz topics like roads and transport as he is all too familiar with the (political) road blocks that exist between the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and his proposed electorate of Isaacs in Melbourne.
The election just got way more interesting.
via The Age
Picture by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
