Not running for parliament this year ;)

I’m not even trying running for Swedish parliament in the upcoming national elections in September. Skipped the internal pre-elections totally. The reasons are many, but the primary ones are:

1. I’m becoming a father – And I would hate to carry two fulltime jobs, as I did during the EU-elections, when my kid takes his first steps. It would kill me inside.

2. Putting my energy into work – As there are a lot of changes, and as some might know the hardest time being a manager is during transition periods. This is also about not doing a lot of things “so so”, but one thing really good.

3. I’m going to run for District Leader (DL) of Stockholm – In an internal election. If winning I’m going to try restructuring the organizational model in order to make more people involved and distribute responsibilities and knowledge.

It felt really good taking this decision as I had been going back and forth in my mind trying to decide on what to do. The main concept behind my decision is “Better to do a few things great, than a lot with poor quality”.

NOW, there are other people running in the current internal pre-elections that I would like to put forth as I know that they are really good people and have a lot to give.

Those are:

- Fredrik Lejnell (blogs in swedish):
Probably the most outspoken of all the Pirates I’ve met and what he lacks in theoretical knowledge, he makes up for with heart. He is active in the Stockholm region and is second in charge in the North of Stockholm. I’ve seen him debate a lot of people, including socialist party members trying everything they could (that one went on for two hours, totally insane) and I know he got his facts straight and can break down almost any opposition. I know him and his wife personally and know that he would make A LOT of noise in the parliament. He has previously been left-winged (not something I would usually support) but as all of the younger people in Sweden he is now leaning more over open waters with an eye-patch.

- Jan Lindgren (blogs in swedish):
Jan has been the District Leader for the District of Stockholm and invested more time and energy than he really can afford into the Pirate Party (as most of us have ). He has always been a good leader and speaker, and has helped me a lot when entering the organization as I know he has with many others. He was also one of the people on the voting ballot for EU-parliament and did the job associated with that very well, attending almost all activities (missed some due to allergies, something about trees). He is very good at putting forth cold facts (as he did with movie revenue & cashflow figures a couple of months ago) and representing the party. He is currently a student studying computer security.

- Johanna Julén (blogs in swedish):
Johanna was also one of the people on the EU-parliament ballot and I met her during the training weekend that was arranged for all of the candidates. She is very open, social and has a burning pro-integrity way of looking at our politics. She is a person that always try to see both sides and weigh the arguments to come up with the best solution. She is a good representative that knows how to express herself in order to be understood and make people relate to the issues. If I had not voted for myself in that election I would have voted for her. She is working as a techsupport rep. at a Swedish ISP and domain name registrar.

- Ola Nyström (blogs in swedish):
Ola is a very humble guy that has been getting more and more involved in the organization in the Stockholm area. Currently he is in charge of the North of Stockholm and is sitting in the same District Leader committee as I am waiting for the election of District Leader. He was a great resource when planning and executing the election ballot distribution in the District of Stockholm and has since been taking on official roles. He lives in Solna and works with firewalls/computer security (if I remember correctly, I’ll correct later otherwise). Voting for him will ensure that we have a balanced person that is capable of good planning and following the party politics.

And then there are about twenty others I like, but these are my top choices

Anyways, I’ll probably aim for the next EU election in 3½ years and I would be deceiving mysef if I think I’m not going to be involved in these elections as well Also, when the DL elections kick off, please remember to vote for me!