Julian Assange wants to start a WikiLeaks party and run for office

Julian Assange, the internationally wanted Wikileaks founder, plans to start a "WikiLeaks party" and run for the senate in Australia's 2013 election, the country's news Web site The Age is reporting:

Assange said plans to register an Australian WikiLeaks party were ''significantly advanced''. He indicated he would be a Senate candidate, and added that "a number of very worthy people admired by the Australian public" have indicated their availability to stand for election on a party ticket.

Assange managed to register himself as an overseas voter  while still in exile in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, and his father is managing the formation of the WikiLeaks party and the submission of its official documents.

Successfully registering the party would require listing at least 500 people as supporters, which Assange hopes to draw from WikiLeaks's substantial online following of 1.7 million Twitter followers and 2.1 million Facebook fans (not all of whom are Australian, though, obviously.)

As for the party platform?

He said a WikiLeaks party would advance WikiLeaks' objectives of promoting openness in government and politics, and it would combat growing intrusions on individual privacy.

Polls inside Australia show that Assange could conceivably stand a chance of winning in either New South Wales or Victoria.

Assange wouldn't be the first person to run for public office from behind bars. For example, American union leader Eugene Debs won 3.4 percent of the vote in the 1920 presidential election while in jail on sedition charges in Atlanta.