WikiLeaks Party

The WikiLeaks Party was a minor political party in Australia between 2013 and 2015. The party was created in part to support Julian Assange's failed bid for a Senate seat in Australia in the 2013 election, where they won 0.62% of the national vote. At the time Assange was seeking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The WikiLeaks Party national council included Assange, Matt Watt, Gail Malone, Assange’s biological father John Shipton, Omar Todd and Gerry Georgatos. The party was heavily criticised for meeting with President Bashar al-Assad during a trip to Syria and experienced internal dissent over its governance and electoral tactics and was deregistered due to low membership numbers in 2015. Formation Assange's decision to run for the Australian Senate was announced via the WikiLeaks Twitter account in March 2012. Assange said that Prime Minister Julia Gillard's attacks on WikiLeaks contributed to his decision to run for the Senate, and that if he won the seat the US would end the grand jury investigation against him and the British government would follow suit "the political costs of the current standoff will be higher still". The intent to form a WikiLeaks Party was announced by Assange in late 2012 and Assange stated that the party was to be a vehicle for his candidacy for a seat in the Australian Senate in the 2013 election. On 23 April 2013, the WikiLeaks Party submitted its registrations to the Australian Electoral Commission. The party had over 1,300 fee-paying members. The application was accepted and the party was registered as a political party on 2 July 2013 and the party launched later that month. Assange said he planned to launch the WikiLeaks Party outside of Australia, and suggested it could expand to US, India or Britain.