34pc undecided on whom to vote for

A recent survey conducted by a consulting firm said over 10 percent of respondents would vote for a student-led party if an election were held now, while more than a third remain undecided.
The survey conducted by  Innovision Consulting sampled 5,115 field respondents from 50 districts and 3,581 online participants.
Md Rubaiyath Sarwar, managing director of Innovision Consulting, presented the findings at an event in Dhaka yesterday.
The survey, conducted between August 30 and September 8, was self-funded by the international advisory firm.
According to the field survey, 34 percent of respondents have not yet decided which party to support. Meanwhile, 21 percent said they would vote for the BNP, 14 percent for Jamaat, and five percent for Awami League.
Additionally, four percent of respondents were reluctant to vote, while three percent each expressed support for independents and Islami Andolan Bangladesh.

A further two percent said they would vote for none, with one percent each supporting the Jatiyo Party and other political groups.
In contrast, the results of the online survey showed significantly different trends.
Over 35 percent of online respondents expressed support for the student-led party, while more than 25 percent said they would vote for Jamaat. Ten percent each said they would vote for the BNP and AL, with three percent backing independents and three percent opting for none. Notably, zero percent of online respondents expressed support for JP.
Discussing the survey results, Sarwar said the field surveys included a broad cross-section of the population, including women, Gen X, Boomers, and older generations. By contrast, 92 percent of online respondents were Gen Z and Millennials.
Sarwar also pointed out that the survey indicates a widespread loss of faith in mainstream political parties.
He suggested that to regain public confidence, these parties must implement large-scale programmes to increase public engagement ahead of the next general election.
The survey was commissioned following the fall of the AL regime on August 5, with Innovision leveraging its expertise to design a hybrid polling system aimed at better understanding public opinion. Sarwar noted that while such systems are common in the West and India, political parties in Bangladesh have historically resisted impartial assessments of voter sentiment.
Sadruddin Imran, chairman and CEO of Innovision Consulting, and Kamalesh Halder, director of Innovision Global Consulting, UK, along with Iffat Mahmud, country manager of Innovision Global Consulting, Nigeria, were also involved in the project.