On Thursday, Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for over a year, formally announced the launch of his WikiLeaks Party. The process to get the party registered has been ongoing since December 2012.

Assange himself will be a candidate for senate, hoping to represent the state of Victoria. Of course, should he be actually elected, it remains unclear whether Assange would be able to leave London to assume his post. In a video conference from London, Assange said that this question was an "extremely interesting'' one. He hopes the situation will be clarified before July 2014, when he would be sworn in.

"Hopefully the situation with the United States and the UK has resolved by then, but if not, the senate is able to give a grace period of a couple of months and then another candidate from the WikiLeaks Party is able to take my place,” he said.

According to the Associated Press, WikiLeaks Party national council member Samantha Castro said that if Assange wins, “the onus is on the Australian government to ensure an elected senator could sit in Parliament,” and that it would create an “unprecedented situation.”

“Wow, what would that mean if the Australian government did nothing to assure the safe passage of an elected representative who has been granted asylum?” Castro asked. “Whether the current government or the opposition would go against the United States’ wishes, I guess, is something we could find out in time.”

The New York Times quoted an Australian National University political science professor, who dismissed the Assange campaign as a stunt similar to what many other protest candidates Down Under have done.

“He’s basically a nuisance candidate who may attract a bit of attention, because he’s not really about governing and sitting in Parliament,” John Wanna said. “He’s not standing to do the work, he’s standing for the nuisance value."