More than 200,000 people have visited an interactive election website that tells potential voters which party's manifesto most closely matches their own views - although most have not received the answer they expected.

Since its launch six days ago by a small UK design agency, the Who Should You Vote For? site has been the online hit of the election campaign, its web address passed on by e-mail between friends and colleagues.

But an analysis released today of the answers given by half of its visitors so far suggest that the centre ground of British politics is getting excessively crowded and voters actually connect better with the more distinctive policies of minor parties like the Greens or the UK Independence Party (Ukip).

Visitors to the site are faced with a list of 23 political statements such as "The UK was right to go to war in Iraq" or "Foxhunting should be made legal again" and have to give their own view on each statement. They are asked which outcome they expect, before being given a recommended vote based on their own stated views.

The site's creators, Paul Lenz and Andrew Chapman of Thoughtplay Ltd, said that of 100,000 people who had taken the quiz since Friday morning, almost half expected to be told to vote Labour or Conservative.

In fact, the actual results gave the Conservatives only 11 per cent of the recommendations and Labour 12 per cent - far behind the Lib Dems on 43 per cent. Only 3 per cent of people expected to be told to vote Ukip, but 17 per cent were actually told that Ukip most closely represented their views. The Green "vote" rose from 4 per cent to 18 per cent.

Mr Chapman said: "Our explanation is that people's perceptions of themselves as Labour voters are wrong - Labour is no longer the party of the left. It's taken the centre ground and the Lib Dems have taken the left wing."

The pair say that they have done their best to ensure that the site is unbiased, although they have received complaints of bias from all across the political spectrum. There have also been complaints from Scottish and Welsh nationalists and from the British National Party that their parties are not included.

"I think the only lesson to be learnt is how to communicate with people," Mr Chapman said. "The parties publish these enormous manifestos and people don't have the time or inclincation to wade through that."

The site's creators say they urge visitors to use their recommendations as no more than a starting point, and to go away and do their own research - although a few people have e-mailed them to say they will go with the recommendation.

"We've been accused of bias in every direction, so we must be doing something right," said Mr Chapman.

"The public response to our quiz has been overwhelmingly positive, however, and we'd like to thank everyone for getting involved, and for demonstrating so clearly that voter apathy is a myth."

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