Cannold quits, Wikileaks haemorrhages

Several hours after her resignation, Cannold told ABC news chief political correspondent Emma Griffiths that she disputes the party's claim that 'administrative errors' were to blame for the NSW decision to give its first preferences to far-right wing candidates and parties in New South Wales, including the Australia First Party which is headed by a convicted criminal and former neo-Nazi.

Support for Cannold came swiftly from respected journalist Mary Kostakidis, who tweeted: "Whoever is responsible for the stuff up should be resigning Leslie, not you."

While the Wikileaks Party prides itself on the use of social media to galvanize supporters, there was troll glee in the Twittersphere about the unraveling of the party that likes to take the high moral ground against the others.

The bottom line, however, is that The WikiLeaks Party is hemorrhaging members; several National Council members and volunteers announced their resignation soon after Cannold. In detailing his reasons for resigning from the National Council of the Wikileaks Party, Dr Daniel Mathews blogged: "I know thousands rushed to join a party they thought they could believe in, and millions around the world have been inspired and have taken courage because of the actions of Wikileaks and Julian Assange.

"I can only apologise to them for not having worked harder to defend the principles of the party; but I know that, had I stayed on, it would have been an increasingly losing battle."

The WikiLeaks faithful who remain now have to wait for theparty's supplementary how-to-vote card to its supporters to override the lodged preferences.

Cannold's decision to quit the WikiLeaks Party came the very day many people received their postal vote. Those like me, who applied the night the election was announced knowing they would be out of the country on election day, would be within the first batch of people receiving a postal vote. There is Cannold's name, down as number two for the party's Senate ticket.

In response to the question "why should someone vote for wikileaks?" Cannold tweeted on 16 August: "We stand for transparency, accountability & justice & will keep the bastards accountable. Five days later, she resigned from the party.

It proves a week is a long time in politics. So, it would seem, is the endurance of the WikiLeaks Party.

Indeed, maybe the choice of party motto – a recycled one at that – was not so wise in hindsight. As third on the WikiLeaks Victorian Senate ticket Dr Binoy Kampmark noted in his blog about the launch of the WikiLeaks Party; "Keep the bastards honest. This was a fine statement till the Democrats, the party he founded, got into bed with establishment politics and promptly imploded. The spirit of Chipp's message, however, remains indomitable."

The question is, will the Wikileaks Party be able to carry Chipp's flame and be a viable option for this election, much less the next one? Or will traditional media and the two major parties have the last laugh?