Julian Assange launches WikiLeaks political party via Skype

Melbourne: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has reportedly launched his political party through Skype link from London to Melbourne`s Fitzroy library.

According to The Age, Assange, a candidate for a Victorian senate position, spoke from the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has been holed up from more than a year. Spokeswoman for the WikiLeaks party, Samantha Cross, said that Assange stressed how the party `would keep the bastards honest` and said that he wants to be back in Australia to take up his seat and was hopeful that that would occur. Assange further said that if it doesn`t happen then the party will nominate a running mate, which is Leslie Cannold. Cross said that Assange spoke about the party`s platform of transparency and how they have very highly skilled candidates with academic, social justice, legal and journalistic backgrounds and were `not your traditional politicians` having interest in transparency and scrutiny, who want to bring the Senate back to a house of oversight. According to the report Assange said that one of the party`s first action would be to insist on full disclosure of the current refugee arrangement with the Papua New Guinea government. Wikileaks is fielding candidates to contest six Senate seats at the upcoming federal election, two each in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, the report added. ANI