Assange launches "Wikileaks Party"

By Matt Siegel

SYDNEY, Australia — Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, formally inaugurated a new political party bearing the name of his antisecrecy organization on Thursday and declared his own unorthodox candidacy for a seat in the Australian Senate in national elections to be held here later this year. 

In a telephone interview, Mr. Assange said he had every confidence in his ability to run a campaign from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has been living for more than a year after having been given asylum so as not to face extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on sexual assault allegations. 

‘'It’s not unlike running the WikiLeaks organization,'’ he said. ‘'We have people on every continent. We have to deal with over a dozen legal cases at once.'’ 

‘'However, it’s nice to be politically engaged in my home country,'’ he added. 

Mr. Assange, an Australian computer hacker who rose to prominence as an evangelist for radical government transparency and a critic of United States foreign policy under then-President George W. Bush, is a deeply polarizing figure. Many believe the WikiLeaks Party is simply a vanity project for Mr. Assange, although several polls conducted since plans to establish the party emerged earlier this year suggest it could fare better than some initially suspected. 

The Australian Senate has a long history of successful protest candidates, John Wanna, a political science professor at Australian National University in Canberra, said in an interview. Mr. Assange is probably hoping to trade on his name recognition and follow in the footsteps of other rabble-rousing, single-issue senators, Mr. Wanna said. 

‘'He’s basically a nuisance candidate who may attract a bit of attention, because he’s not really about governing and sitting in Parliament. He’s not standing to do the work, he’s standing for the nuisance value,'’ he said. 

If elected, Mr. Assange said, his party would work to advance a platform of ‘'transparency, justice and accountability.'’ 

Supporters of Mr. Assange laud him as a hero for what they see as his dogged pursuit of government transparency, but prominent critics such as U.S. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. have referred to him as a ‘'high-tech terrorist'’ for what they call the reckless release of classified information that has harmed American interests and put lives in danger. 

Mr. Assange is perhaps best known for WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of a huge trove of American diplomatic cables. His supporters maintain that the United States and its allies have fabricated the sexual assault case against him in Sweden to hamper his ability to release further classified materials and punish him for those already released. 

In addition to Mr. Assange, the party announced on Thursday the names of six other candidates it will be running in the election, which is currently scheduled to be held on Sept. 14. 

‘'My plans are to essentially parachute in a crack troop of investigative journalists into the Senate and to do what we have done with WikiLeaks, in holding banks and government and intelligence agencies to account,'’ Mr. Assange said. 

Mr. Assange said that his experience in running WikiLeaks had prepared him for the Australian Senate, which is similar in its powers and structure to the United States Senate. 

Under Australian law, Mr. Assange would have to take his seat within one year of being elected, although the Senate could technically grant him an extension if he is unable to physically take his seat. The British government has stated its intention to arrest him if he leaves the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, which presents an unusual set of logistical obstacles should he win the election. 

‘'There is, of course, some possibility that the Australian Senate would permit remote involvement. It’s never been done before, but it is theoretically possible,'’ Mr. Assange said. ‘'But in any event we have candidates available to hold the seat until such time as I am available to take it.'’ 

Although he is best known for his views on international affairs, Mr. Assange was eager on Thursday to offer WikiLeaks’ position on the most contentious issue in contemporary Australian politics: the record number of people attempting to reach Australia each year in rickety boats in order to claim political asylum. 

Mr. Assange assailed a tough new policy announced last week by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, under which all asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat are to be sent to refugee-processing centers in Papua New Guinea. If they are found to be entitled to refugee status under the United Nations convention on refugees, they will be resettled in Papua New Guinea, but they forfeit any right to seek asylum in Australia. 

‘'For every complex problem there is a simple and elegant solution, which also happens to be dead wrong,'’ Mr. Assange said. ‘'Dumping all asylum seekers to Australia into Papua New Guinea is an example of that.'’ 

He compared his own situation, and that of Edward J. Snowden — the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents about American surveillance programs — with those attempting to reach Australia by boat to claim asylum. 

‘'I am a political asylum seeker — awarded political asylum by the Ecuadorian government and another state, the United Kingdom, and other states, are interfering with that,'’ he said.