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Voters set 5 priority agenda for govt

Inflation, graft, crime, food security, education must get topmost importance, reveal IRl exit polls

Staff Correspondent
When voters had cast their votes in the just-ended general elections, the five top things that they wanted the next government to address are inflation, corruption, crime and law and order, food security and education, an International Republican Institute (IRI) exit poll shows.
An exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited polling stations.
A highest number of 27 percent said they want the
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next government to address price inflation. 22 percent corruption, 17 percent crime, terrorism, security and law and order, eight percent food security and an equal number education.
These five issues actually cover the top pledges of the two major parties--Awami League (AL) and BNP In fact, AL's priority areas leave two issues outlaw and order and education— which were included on the BNP'sprioritylist
Although power development was on AL's top agenda, only two percent opted for this issue.
The IRI conducted the exit poll in 150 constituencies with data collected by Nielsen Bangladesh and supervised by David Williams of Williams and Associates. In-person interviews were conducted during official polling hours outside polling booths. A total of 18.055 interviews were taken.
An overwhelming 93 percent of the voters rated the election environment as very good. This high percent run across voters who voted for the AL and the BNP Another six percent said they faced some problems but the environment was generally
Correspondingly, 86 percent said they did not encounter any problem or irregularities in casting votes. Of the 14 percent who said they faced difficulties more than half or eight percent said the problem was that they had to wait too long in queue. One percent each mentioned that they faced difficulties in finding voter number, met inefficient election officials, had problems in finding polling centre and were concerned with safety.
The exit poll also revealed that the political parties have a strong sway over the voters as 31 percent said they had voted following their previous family or personal pattern. Five percent had decided their voting last year, six percent earlier this year, and seven percent before January 2007. However, campaign seemed to have a big impact on voting pattern as eight percent said they made up their mind during the campaign period and eight percent after elections were scheduled
On the voting day, as voters came out of polling centres, 82 percent of them were positive that the country is headed in the right direction and only 12 percent said it is going the wrong