John McAfee, the idiosyncratic ex-fugitive founder of McAfee antivirus is running for the post of the President of the United States next year. McAfee, who grabbed international headlines in 2012 during a run from Belize authorities, on Wednesday filed the requisite paperwork to become a US presidential candidate in the November 2016 election as part of his new Cyber Party.
McAfee said that as a party candidate he will obviously be focusing on cyber security. According to the campaign video he uploaded on his YouTube channel, the 69-year old software pioneer wants to put more limits on the government’s reach into Americans’ lives, strengthen privacy protections and “return sanity to the government”.
In his video, he recounts America’s Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which he calls texts that are not representative of the way Americans’ online privacy is treated today.
“They could not have anticipated a world in which information is the prime commodity of exchange,” he adds.
Despite his lack of experience in politics, McAfee said he is confident he will have backers. “I have a huge underground following on the web,” McAfee said in his interview with CNN. “I promise you I will win because I have the votes.”
McAfee’s campaign website also focuses on matters of privacy and technology and features a quote from George Washington, “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism,” to prove it.
McAfee joins an already large group of individuals running for presidential nomination, including at least 17 Republicans and five Democrats – some who have not had experience in political positions before.
McAfee hasn’t come up with a campaign slogan yet—”have to ask my manager”—but he said he’s started raising money, though he’s not sure how much. “I’ve been working 22 hours a day talking to the press and trying to understand the chaos around me.”