Dutch Pirate Party presents list of candidates

The Netherlands has one more political party. This morning, the Pirate Party presented its list of candidates for the upcoming national elections. On the list are fourteen names, amongst which one woman.

The list is led by the 27-year-old Samir Allioui. Until that moment, he was the chair of the party. The majority of the party’s members, during the general meeting yesterday, reported not to be happy with the chair of the party also wishing to lead the list. Upon this call, Allioui announced to step back as chair. Vice-president Thijs Markus steps up to fill that position.

The party plans to speak mostly in issues with an  IT-component. Besides the well known vision on copyright, the Pirate Party intends to speak out against government policies that limit privacy. For that reason, for example, the party opposes the Electronic Patient File, a national database in which medical files of all Dutch citizens will be stored.

The Pirate Party is now all but set for the elections. It states to almost be able to hand the Election Council the required surety of nearly 12.000 Euro. Furthermore, the party needs to collect 30 autographs from all 19 districts in the week from 21-27 April.

12 April 2010