Pirate Party fizzles in Swedish polls

The Pirate Party's leaders blamed the deferral of debates about copyright and digital freedom by Sweden's incumbent politicians for its dismal showing in yesterday's national poll.

Despite the Pirate Party's efforts to capture the hearts and minds of Swedes by pairing up with WikiLeaks and The Pirate Bay, it only managed to secure 0.7 per cent of the nation's vote, according to an exit poll conducted by Sweden's national TV broadcaster, SVT.

In an election dominated by immigration issues, the Pirate Party's result was only marginally better than the 0.63 per cent it garnered in Sweden's 2006 poll.

Party leaders Rick Falk Vinge ad Anna Troberg said in a video blog that "everything that puts the light on our questions have been moved to immediately after the election: the Data Retention Directive... the Pirate Bay trial ... yes, even [the] signing of ACTA comes just days after the Parliamentary elections."

Sweden's anti-immigration focussed far-right party, the Swedish Democrats, took almost 5 per cent of the vote, ushering it in as a "king maker" in a country that faces a hung parliament.

Falk Vinge said the right's rise had left Sweden with leaders that were "hostile" to privacy rather than its previously "privacy friendly" leaders. He added that the far right's new power also made his party's role even more important.

Falk Vinge told daily newspaper Exrpessen that the Pirate Party's seven per cent result in the European elections ended its favour amongst larger parties, but their decision to keep it out resulted in another challenger - the far right.

However, he said the Pirate Party was still in an "activist position".

It now intended to establish a "think tank" to help flesh out its policies, and will prepare for the 2014 European elections.