The question of whether Assange can succeed in his bid is a good one. On one hand, he has repeatedly been convicted of crimes involving hacking and some people consider him to be a . At the same time, he's a master at getting media attention and many people applaud his efforts to make governments more transparent.

Assange, who was born and raised in Australia, is waiting to find out if he will be extradited to Sweden, where have accused him of sexually assaulting them in 2010.

According to The Register, Assange's entry into the political arena was

Wikileaks also posted on Twitter that it is looking for a candidate to run against Prime Minister Julia Gillard for her seat representing the Australian state of Victoria.

Assange has criticized Gillard for not defending him after WikiLeaks made thousands of classified U.S. embassy cables public in 2010. Even though Australian police said he hadn't broken any Australian laws by doing it, Gillard called the action "grossly irresponsible," reports .