But the Pirate Party in one country in particular has exceeded all expectations, with two separate polls currently estimating them to have garnered 35% of the vote.

Iceland’s Píratar party, itself a spin-off of Sweden’s Pirates, has shot up in recent opinion polls, to the extent that, according to two recent surveys, they would even be the most popular party if elections were held today.

Political analysts are still uncertain whether the Pirate’s success in disrupting the status quo is only a phase or represents a more permanent trend. Regardless, their recent electoral popularity is sure to cause some waves in the Icelandic parliament, called Althing, especially in the department of cryptocurrencies.  

One topic of conversation will surely be the legality of cryptocurrencies, as Iceland placed an outright ban on cryptocurrencies late in 2014.  Generally speaking, Pirate Parties are in favor of cryptocurrencies, and the recent success of the Finnish Pirate Party in funding campaigns with Bitcoin will certainly motivate their Icelandic counterparts to bring the cryptocurrency discussion back to the table.

Read more about Iceland’s Pirate Party here. Note: Follow My Vote is a non-partisan organization. We do not endorse any political party.

The post Pirate Party Popularity Explodes In Iceland appeared first on Follow My Vote.

Birgitta Jonsdottir, who was previously a member of Iceland’s Parliament for the Citizen’s Movement, helped found the Party in the wake of Iceland’s financial crisis. According to the same “The Independent” article, Ms Jonsdottir said, “To be completely honest, I don’t know why we enjoy so much trust, we are all just as surprised, thankful and take this as a sign of mistrust towards conventional politics.”

The party campaigns for internet and data freedom, as it was partially formed by several prominent internet activists, including Smari McCarthy. The party exists in over 60 countries.

In 2013, the party won three seats in Iceland’s parliamentary elections and they have also been using their European Parliament seats to pressurize the European Union into changing copyright laws. In two months the party nearly doubled in popularity. According to RT, even though the Pirate Party has the smallest faction in the national parliarment, it is currently almost as popular as the two most powerful parties, the Independent Party and the Progressive Party. According to an opinion poll cited in the article, “the Pirate Party would score 30.1 percent of votes if elections were held today.” From the same poll by Icelandic market research company MMR, the ruling Independence Party had fallen from 25.5 per cent to 23.4 per cent.

“People are starting to realize that the whole system is corrupt, not just a few politicians,” Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, Pirate Party’s chair and one of its three MPs told Vísir news website in March. “They don‘t trust it at all. I think they appreciate it when someone points this out.”

In the US, the Pirate Party, whose chapter was formed in 2006, aligns its goals with the International Pirate Movement. It has eight main values, including transparent government, individual privacy, egalitarianism, and an individual-over-institution mindset. In reference to their name, their site states, “For our rejection of authority and profit-seeking when it does not serve the common good of all people, we have been called “pirates”. We reclaim this label of “pirate” and abjure its derogatory, incendiary implication. We are Pirates. We stand for the liberty, equality, and solidarity of all human beings, and against all threats they may face.”

Follow My Vote is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to bringing light and transparency to the world of politics. With the Pirate Party, who campaigns for those same values, gaining ground in countries all over the world, including the US, clearly the world of politics is experiencing a movement in that same direction.

The post The Icelandic Pirate Party Plunders Popularity appeared first on Follow My Vote.

The Finnish Pirate Party, also known as Piraattipuolue in Finnish, ran in the Finnish Parliment elections on Sunday, April 19th, 2015. Bitcoin donations to the party have skyrocketed in the last month, exceeding over 10,000 Euros of BTC, more than the 4,000 Euros they received from all donation channels last year. This shows not only that the party is growing significantly, but also that Bitcoin is increasing in popularity within the party. The FPP’s platform focuses on liberty, privacy, transparency of government, and more social freedoms, all of which line up with the principles of Cryptocurrency.

Read the full article here.

NOTE: Follow My Vote is a non-partisan organization. This announcement should in no way, shape, or form serve as an endorsement for the Pirate Party by Follow My Vote. 

The post Pirate Party of Finland Sees Surge of Donations in Bitcoin appeared first on Follow My Vote.

The Pirate Party exists across 6 continents and in approximately 61 countries throughout the world (including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, China, India, Russia, Israel, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, Morocco, Brazil, Argentina, and the United Kingdom). The European Pirate Party is also active within the European Union. Generally, the Pirate Parties support civil rights, direct democracy and participation in government, reform of copyright and patent law, free sharing of knowledge (open content), information privacy, transparency, freedom of information, anti-corruption and network neutrality.

Members of the Pirate Party of Norway originally heard about Follow My Vote and our revolutionary online voting system during the 1st European Liquid Democracy Meetup, which was hosted by Julia Reda (Pirate Party Member of the European Parliament). From there, the party as a whole wanted a chance to learn more about our online voting platform and its benefits first-hand. Needless to say, we took full advantage of this opportunity!

This meeting, which is held annually in Oslo, Norway, took place on March 21-22. Ernest, was originally invited to speak for approximately 45 minutes; however, due to the active engagement and participation from the audience, his presentation lasted nearly 90 minutes. A shortened version of his presentation can be viewed below:

During the presentation, Ernest shared his experience with voting in his first election (the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election). He also mentioned the controversy surrounding this particular election and the fallout that followed. Ernest then discussed how utilizing a verifiable voting system could restore faith in the democratic process, once and for all. He also demonstrated Follow My Vote’s proof of concept verifiable online voting application.

We took a several pictures during the presentation, which can be seen in the image gallery below:

Being that the Pirate Party of Norway was established recently, several members of the Pirate Party were fascinated with the idea of using our online voting system as a way to build a more specific platform for their faction of the party. Using our verifiable online voting platform, the Pirate Party will have the ability to establish consensus with respect to the issues that matter most to the party, determine where the party stands on such issues, and decide how best to prioritize addressing these issues as a party. If anything, the Pirate Party of Norway intends on using Follow My Vote’s online voting system in their political party’s internal elections.

The Pirate Party of Norway aims to serve as an example to the rest of the world by embracing cutting-edge technology in order to provide transparency into the political process. To this end, they have requested to be the first political party to begin utilizing the platform, as soon as Follow My Vote (in partnership with BitShares) has completed development of the commercially viable version of their software.

In the days ahead, we intend to work with the Pirate Party of Norway to ensure that we develop an open-source version of our software that meets their party’s needs, as well as reach out to the Pirate Party in various countries across the globe to gather their requirements to ensure our voting platform is fit for worldwide adoption.

NOTE: Follow My Vote is a non-partisan organization. Although we will be developing a verifiable online voting system that will assuredly meet the needs of the Pirate Party, this announcement and/or plan of action should in no way shape or form serve as an endorsement for the Pirate Party by Follow My Vote. 

The post Follow My Vote & The Pirate Party Make Plans For The Future Of Voting appeared first on Follow My Vote.