Kim Dotcom quits Mega to head new political party, fight extradition

Internet mogul Kim Dotcom has stepped down from his position as managing director of file-sharing site Mega to focus on his legal battles and his political ambitions. The loquacious entrepreneur says he plans to form a new political party in New Zealand, of which he will be head, and will lobby for "a new submarine cable, fair …

[GrumpyKiwi]

Not a NZ Citizen = not an MP

You have to be a citizen to become an MP in NZ - which DotCom is not (and given his relationship with the government is unlikely to be able to become).

While he can found a party, he won't be an MP anytime soon.

[FartingHippo]

Re: Not a NZ Citizen = not an MP

Not sure why it's a fail. He hasn't claimed to be running for office, just founding a party.

I wish him luck. It's a much more grown up approach to changing the system than those eejits at Anonymous have ever managed.

[GrumpyKiwi]

Re: Not a NZ Citizen = not an MP

Mostly it's a fail because if people were going to vote for his party, they'd be voting for him. Once it's made clear that they won't be getting him as an MP, the likelihood is very high that they'll fail to crack the 5%.

Added to that, they're likely to cannibalise votes from the Greens, the only other party with a credible stand on the right to privacy.

[auburnman]

Re: Not a NZ Citizen = not an MP

He can certainly do what is an option for any rich elite, bankroll his own sock-puppet.

[LarsG]

Not a citizen

But nutty as a fruit cake. You have got to love him for it!

[Greg 16]

Re: Not a citizen

He's not that nutty. He's a self made multimillionaire and if you hear him in interviews, he comes across as being very intelligent.

[Vaughan 1]

Re: Not a NZ Citizen = not an MP

What I find ironic is that none of the media here in NZ have actually pointed this out, they have been reporting it as if he will be running for a seat in parliment

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not a NZ Citizen = not an MP

Speaking as an expat Kiwi, I'm somewhat surprised that you'd find this ironic. For a couple of reasons. One being that the NZ media, while great in many ways, are often a long way from being a bastion of journalistic accuracy and quality. Particularly if you read Stuff.

[veti]

"Publicity whore does what publicity whores do"

I.e. "Absolutely anything to get another week's worth of headlines."

Remember this story, for instance - about what he's going to do for us all, with money that he doesn't have and (he knows damn' well) he never wiill?

Or this one, which was being refuted within hours?

This is a self-made millionaire who made his money by crime (yes, real crime with real victims, not "copyright violation" accounting-crime - he served time for it in Germany). And now he's playing the New Zealand system (because it's so amateurish and ripe for playing - frankly, he'll fit right in alongside the other idiots who've founded minor parties based on nothing but their own egos), and the world media is going along with it because anything, absolutely ANYTHING, is better than having to turn their attention to real problems.

[Brenda McViking]

NZ Broadband

They damn well need another cable - their broadband prices are about 4 times the cost of ours in the UKs for a limit comparable to most smartphones - 1-3GB a month.

Great if you want to slow down and enjoy life and retire in Lord of the Rings country, but if you yearn for an acceptable 21st century standard of living - able to watch moving video on a PC rather than an advert stuffed box for instance, NZ would drive you crazy before too long.

[RobHib]

He lives in an Englisn-speaking country...

..and I wish him lots of luck!

If you live in an English-speaking country, then when the New Motherland demands your presence you'll have Hades chance of ever escaping.