Our well-known website WikiLeaks officially submitted its application to become a political party in Australia.
The application for registration of the new party was made on the Australian Electoral Commission website today. To form a new political party in Australia, it must have at least 500 members who are registered on the country's electoral rolls and are not members of any other political party.
The party was formed when WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced his intention to run for the Australian Senate, despite being holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has been holed up there for more than a year as the UK sought to extradite him to face allegations of sex crimes he allegedly committed in Sweden.
If Assange gets just over 14% in the upcoming election, he will secure a seat in the Australian Senate and become the second person to be elected to the Australian parliament who lives in London. The first was Earl Grey in 1848, ZDNet reports. Assange could take up his position (if elected) on July 1, 2014, but if he has not returned to Australia before that date, it is unclear how he will take office.
