Unlock Democracy launches vote match tool for Labour leadership contest

Non-partisan reform group Unlock Democracy has launched a special version of their 'Vote Match' online tool for the Labour party leadership contest.

On Wednesday 1 September 2010, Labour party members will start to receive their ballot papers to elect their new leader, and candidate to be the next Prime Minister.

Unlock Democracy says its initiative is intended to help them make an informed decision.

Vote Match is a short online interactive quiz designed to raise voter awareness about the policy differences between the candidates on the issues that matter to them. The website www.votematch.org.uk has now gone live.

This is the fourth version of Vote Match which Unlock Democracy has run since 2008. However it is the first time it has been tried for an internal party leadership election.

During the last General Election over 1.2 million people used the quiz to help them decide how to cast their vote.

Commenting on the launch, Unlock Democracy's deputy director, Alexandra Runswick said: "Vote Match is designed to be a quick, easy and fun way to find out what the leadership candidates think on the issues that are important to you."

She continued: “Because the election is being held using the Alternative Vote, as well as matching you to the candidate who most closely matches your views, Vote Match can also help you decide on your second and third choice of candidate."

Vote Match is a project of Unlock Democracy in partnership with the Guardian newspaper.

People are asked to answer a number of agree/disagree statements about policy, and then to rank them in order of importance to them. They then get a match based on how their answers compare with the candidates answers to the same statement.

These statements have been formulated with the help of leading Labour Party members and bloggers, as well as suggestions from members of the public who have previously used the site.

Unlock Democracy is a leading UK campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms. It was formed in 2007 and is the successor organisation to Charter 88 and the New Politics Network.

It is also becoming the successor body to Power 2010, which brought together a host of civic-based reform organisations in the run up to the 6 May 2010 General Election, including the think-tank Ekklesia.

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