PRESIDENTIAL PRIORITIES

Emojot and LMD asked readers to rank the nation’s priorities

The economy, civil rights and corruption came out as being the burning issues, in a unique and exclusive online poll compiled by LMD in collaboration with Emojot in the days leading up to the 16 November presidential election.

Participants were invited to rank what they view as priorities for the new head of state; and in the context of the big picture so to speak, the 258 respondents to the poll – including many Sri Lankans living overseas – cited the economy (29%), national security (21%), and law and order (21%) as being the top three priorities for the new president.

As for ‘yahapalanaya,’ the sample population picked the following as being most important: reduce corruption (27%); a cabinet and state sector that is free of officials who are being investigated for corruption (19%); and a reduction of the number of cabinet members serving the state (18%).

We also asked participants to rank the new head of state’s pecking order for national development – and education reform (16%), employment creation (13%) and lower debt (13%) came up as the critical issues for the new presidential term, which began on 18 November with the inauguration of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka’s seventh executive president.

And last but not least, in the orbit of social cohesion an improvement in civil and human rights (25% and 22% respectively) together with a call to combat racism (by a fifth of those who responded) were among the top priorities cited by survey respondents.