Apparently Libertas has been recognised in all 27 EU member states despite the evil machinations of shadowy Brussels Bureaucrats. So says Declan Ganley
He is not completely truthful. (Surprise!)
The swedish election authority has a wonderfully clear site, as long as you speak swedish. So lets see what they say about registered party names.
Registrerade partibeteckningar
Partibeteckningar som är registrerade för val till riksdagen gäller också vid val till landstings- och kommunfullmäktige i hela landet samt vid val till Europaparlamentet. Partibeteckningar som är registrerade för val till landstingsfullmäktige gäller också för val till kommunfullmäktige i alla kommuner inom länet.
Ok, lots of swedish. But the alphabetical list is easy enough to understand. Lets check "L".
Laholmspartiet 2006-01-23 Laholm Levande Roslagsbygd 2006-02-23 Norrtälje Lidingöpartiet 1978-04-13 Lidingö Linköpingspartiet 1995-12-15 Linköping Ljusnarsbergs obundna Kommunparti 1982-02-18 Ljusnarsberg Lysekilspartiet.nu 2001-11-08 Lysekil Läns(bytar)partiet 2006-02-28 Heby Långshyttepartiet 2009-01-12 Hedemora
8 local parties, but no Libertas.
To be absolutely fair, there is no requirement to register in order to run. You just need to order and deliver ballots to the voters, or get enough to write your party name on an empty ballot. What registering does is protecting your party name, because before you spend all that cash and energy you might want to be sure that your competitors does not also decide to run as "Libertas".
Registering takes just 1500 signatures (for national or EP election) and a seat needs somewhere around 100 000 votes. So it is a fairly good measurement of if a party has any intention of actually running. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
So, if Libertas doesn't register it means that a person (or persons) can order their own Libertas ballots here, and distribute those to voting halls to sabotage and create confusion around this party. They still have until the 2nd March to register though.
