Top Candidate for Pirate Party Netherlands Elected – Pirate Times

The Pirate Party Netherlands (PPNL) elected its top candidate for the national elections that will be held next year (15th of March, 2017). The election for top spot in the coming national elections took place last Sunday, during a general assembly organized specifically for this purpose. Six candidates competed for the top spot in the list: Janmaarten Batstra, Rico Brouwer, Matthijs Pontier, Dirk Poot, Bob Sikkema and Ancilla van de Leest.

To give all Pirates a chance to make an informed decision on whom to elect as the new face of the party, a series of debates were organized throughout the country. During two weeks the cities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Delft and Groningen were visited. During the third debate, in Delft, Matthijs Pontier retracted his candidacy and expressed his support for Ancilla van de Leest.

In light of this event it was not a big surprise that Ancilla won the internal election by a landslide victory. Ancilla (30) has been a member of PPNL for years. She is born in Rotterdam and a prominent privacy activist. In the past she has worked for, among others, Bits of Freedom. She is also known from her participation in radio and TV shows.

“With this election I received a mandate to spread the Pirate ideals during the next four years […] I’m very proud to have been given the confidence of the members. The changes in society that are on the Pirate Party agenda have suddenly become very urgent. Even in The Hague. It’s now my job to be the face of a broad movement. With all Pirates together we are going to make sure that civil rights stay guaranteed in a digital society” – Ancilla van de Leest

The Dutch Pirates will use this summer to complete the list and program. After the summer the campaign will begin. Pirates in the whole of the Netherlands will participate in the largest election campaign the party has ever seen.

Images: From PPNL website, CC0