Election App: Left or Right - How will you swipe?

Tinder is perfect for people who don’t have time to get to know people before they decide if they like them or not.

Swipe right if you like, left if you don't. Now, for those people who don’t have time to read a newspaper or do a little bit of research before voting this November, no matter, now you can swipe right, or swipe left, to help you vote.

An app, in its planning stages, that will work the same way as Tinder, will aim to inform young people about politics and encourage them to vote.

The app will present users with policies and ask them to swipe left or right, depending on whether they agree or not with it. Based on swipes, the most suitable party will be generated.

The app is the brainchild of Hannah Duder, a 22 year-old Canterbury University student, who entered the idea in the Shoulder Tap Campaign. Shoulder Tap, set up by entrepreneur Derek Handley, has given Duder $10,000 to create the app.

Duder said her friends "who don't vote" had inspired the idea for the app, which would target 18 to 24-year-olds, more than 40 per cent of which do not vote.

An undecided voter creates a profile with information about age, home ownership and occupation. The app then generates policies that might affect the user.

The app doesn’t tell you who the policy belongs to, but at the end will suggest which party would be best suited to you, based on which way you swiped.

Duder said the profile was vital, as it stopped the app from going through every policy of every party. ''I don't want a student for example to be asked questions about policies on tax breaks for farmers." Because students aren’t interested in those things, are they.

I am all for getting young people interested in politics and getting them out there to vote, so I think this is a brilliant idea. However, I hope people don’t base their decisions solely on the app and do a bit of research about policies that are important to them and important to our country.

The app is in the planning stages, but should be launched in time for the election in September.

The app will also automatically remind users to vote on election day and tell them where to find voting booths.