Want to run for Australia's Senate?

Six hopefuls will get the chance to fight for a seat

A new Australian reality TV show is looking to find not pop singers but future politicians.

Vote for Me will audition ordinary Australians to find six candidates to run as independents for the Senate.

A panel of experts will identify 18 contenders, and then the public will whittle them down to six by voting via text messaging.

A general election is due in Australia later this year, and is expected to be called in October or November.

A similar programme, also to be called Vote for Me, will be held in the UK next year.

In Australia, the successful contestants will run for seats in the Senate, or parliament, in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.

They will be given A$10,000 (US$6,800) in campaign funds.

"We are not providing the candidates with policies," said executive producer of Channel Seven's Sunrise breakfast news programme, which will give the contestants air time to campaign.

"We are simply providing them with exposure and this is something that past independents have not had the luxury of," Adam Boland said.

Commentators were divided over the value of the programme to national politics.

Some academics said the concept trivialised political debate, but University of Sydney Associate Professor Catherine Lumby said it could make the process more democratic.

"There is generally a lot of politics about getting into politics and it's not something that most people understand or experience," she was quoted as saying by Australia's Sydney Morning Herald.