WikiLeaks to run Senate candidates

Julian Assange is still holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Source: AFP

THE WikiLeaks Party will run Senate candidates in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia, including a yet to be named running mate for Julian Assange, who would fill the Victorian seat if Assange was elected but unable to return to the country.

The candidates will be announced over the next few weeks.

Campaign director Greg Barns said the party had not ruled out running candidates in other states - or the House of Representatives - and there had so far been discussions with "potential high quality candidates" in the nominated states.

"We certainly think we're in the mix to win a senate seat in each of the three states," Mr Barns said in Melbourne today.

If Assange is elected but cannot return to the country, his running mate will take up his seat.

Assange is living in the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he has been granted asylum to avoid being extradited to Sweden.

Mr Barnes said if Assange was elected, whether he was able to take up his seat would be a matter for the Australian government.

"The situation would be that you would have a person whom the voters of Victoria have elected.

"It would be up to the government to secure the opportunity for Mr Assange to come back to Australia," Mr Barns said.

"It would be internationally embarrassing for the voters of Victoria not to be able to have in the senate the person for whom they voted on September 14."

He added the election was not a legal strategy on the part of Assange to get back to Australia.

"If that were the case he would simply put his name down for the Senate, run in the ungrouped category and hope to get elected," Mr Barns said.

Newly-appointed party spokesperson Sam Castro said the WikiLeaks party had already exceeded the 500 members required to register as a party.

"We're in the process of checking that they're already legitimately enrolled," Ms Castro said.

"It seems that we are going to well and truly exceed the numbers required by the Australian Electoral Commission to register ourselves as a political party."

She said the party hoped to have that achieved by mid-May.

The party was drawing members from both of the major sides of politics as well as people who had not previously been politically active, Ms Castro said.

Assange cannot even look out of the windows of the Ecuadorean embassy in London, but his confinement has not dampened his work ethic, his father says.

''The conditions are physically harsh,'' Assange's biological father John Shipton says.

''He's not allowed to look out the windows for fear of admirers throwing food, you don't know if it's contaminated or not.''

But a constant stream of visitors is keeping his intellect alive and the demands of the WikiLeaks organisation -and now its political party - are keeping him busy, according to Mr Shipton.

Speaking at the launch of the WikiLeaks Party in Melbourne today, Mr Shipton described his son as ''well''.

''Emotionally he's steady and has tremendous support.''

The Ecuadoreans are looking after him, he said.

Mr Shipton, who is the chairman of the WikiLeaks Party, said the decision to enter politics is a result of the ''transparency movement'' maturing.

''This is the political manifestation of an event that's been unfolding for 10 years,'' Mr Shipton said.

''In this way, transparency can have the arm of accountability with some political authority and power behind it.''

He said Assange had first broached the possibility of running for government late in 2011 and was was ''very firm'' in his commitment to politics.

''If the people of Victoria elect him to represent them that's his job; to represent the people of Victoria in the senate,'' Mr Shipton said.

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