General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJulian Assange confident of winning Senate seat, participating in debate
AAP August 29, 2013 9:15AM
... "Taking into account the last poll of the ALP, Coalition and the Greens it's likely I will be elected in Victoria to the Senate if we get more than four per cent of the vote."
If the Greens vote is as high as many expect, Mr Assange, 42, argues its excess quota could flow to WikiLeaks and see him elected.
Mr Assange's former running mate Leslie Cannold and a number of his party's national council members quit last week, citing a lack of transparency and accountability ...
"I'm pleased that resignation has occurred because it removed a source of conflict which was holding the party back," Mr Assange said ...
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/julian-assange-confident-of-winning-senate-seat-participating-in-debate/story-fn9qr68y-1226706293203
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)... a bunch of folks in his party and that his chances of winning had gone WAY DOWN.
struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)can be tricky, given Australia's complicated preference voting system
There are multiple seats to be filled in districts, and once a candidate gets enough votes to get a set, any excess votes for the candidate will be reallocated proportionally, according to voters indicated preferences for other candidates or parties
Low-count candidates also drop off the list and votes for them are similarly reallocated
So determining the election results can involve a long tedious process of dropping candidates, re-allocating votes, and re-computing totals
That's why Assange thinks he might win with only 4% of the vote: he's counting on preferences thrown his way, from votes in excess of quota, from the Greens and presumably also from all the itsy-bitsy extremist parties he apparently negotiated preference swaps with
And it's also why the Greens are pizzed at him: they're worried his preference choices could cost them in favor of some extremist
I think that's partly what all the recent resignations from Wikileaks Party were about
The real question might be what the effect of that row is on potential Wikileaks voters: some may care that Wikileaks preferenced (say) a white supremacist party and some may not
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)who was a co-founder of Wikileaks. He was one of the ones that also resigned last week. He gives a pretty good account of the inner workings of the Wikileaks Party here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023512271
Edit: oops, that was the DU thread. Here's Matthews' article:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/22/wikileaks-julian-assange
Sid
struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)JI7
(89,249 posts)joshcryer
(62,270 posts)Yeah, the damn leftists, wanting to keep the party, you know, moral, ethical.
Good luck having a right wing party Assange.