Whistleblowing group WikiLeaks unveiled plans Saturday to field candidates in at least three states in Australia's elections and said it would be “embarrassing” if Julian Assange won but couldn't take his seat. Assange, Australian-born founder of the controversial WikiLeaks site, announced that he would run for the Senate last year and is pushing ahead with the plan despite being holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June. Greg Barns, a lawyer who is Assange's newly-appointed campaign director, said the WikiLeaks Party had secured candidates to run in at least three states when Australia goes to the polls on September 14. Aside from Assange, who is expected to be on the upper house ticket for the state of Victoria, Barns said WikiLeaks would present several other “high quality candidates” including a state running mate for the WikiLeaks chief. That would allow the party to take the Victoria seat even if Assange, who sought Ecuadorian asylum in a bid to dodge extradition to Sweden where he is wanted over sex crime allegations, is unable to return to Australia. Britain refused to grant Assange safe passage out of the country, leaving him stranded in Ecuador's London embassy, and Australia — his place of birth — has been outspoken about his whistleblowing activities. Barns said the WikiLeaks Party “certainly think we're in the mix to win a Senate seat in each of the three states” it presently had plans to run in, but Assange's return to Australia if victorious would be a matter for Canberra. BN
