Readers of The Royal Gazette have told us some of the questions they want new Premier Paula Cox to answer and suggested what her top priorities ought to be.

More than 2,500 people logged onto our website for live coverage of the PLP leadership election on Thursday.

Many took part in the impromptu polls we posted on the Follow it Live site, and contributed to debate on the big issues facing the country.

The three topics which readers listed as crucial for Ms Cox and her new Cabinet to tackle were crime, education and debt.

Early on in the day, we asked followers in an entirely unscientific poll who would win the leadership battle and 48 percent predicted it would be Ms Cox.

Seventy-six percent of people told us that former Premier Ewart Brown did not do a good job and 85 percent said he would not make a political comeback.

Eighty three percent said they'd like Ms Cox to hold weekly sessions with the media, while 63 percent said they didn't think The Royal Gazette was biased against the PLP.

Leadership loser Dale Butler was the people's choice for Deputy Premier: 83 percent of Follow it Live participants who took part in our poll felt he should have got the job rather than Derrick Burgess.

Questions for the country's new leader came in thick and fast throughout our 12-hour coverage of the event.

Here is a selection of what readers wanted to ask the new Premier:

• Dr. Brown stated that the PLP we elected was going to be a party for the people, all people of Bermuda. What will the PLP be as a party under your rule? Will it truly be a transparent party and, if so, how?

• Why do you think you were selected? What part of your message connected the best with the delegates? What is your 100-day agenda? And how will this impart your message to the rest of the community?

• Will you have new ideas or will it be the same old?

• Do you support the reduction in education spending at a time when public education is failing Bermuda's youths and, if so, how can you justify the fall in education spending without similar cuts across all Government departments?

• Will the extra security, position of press secretary and the race consultant role still be in effect?

• What is the status of the space being rented in Washington DC by Bermuda Government? Is it still unoccupied and, if so, why has the taxpayer had to foot the bill on an unoccupied space for over a year?

• Will you make the radical choices we need to fix our public education?

• Do you believe that parliamentary questions functioning along the lines of Prime Minister's Questions in the UK House of Commons would strengthen democracy and government scrutiny in Bermuda?

• What initiatives/programmes will you implement to address the gang issues?

• What is your "litmus test" for gauging the success/failure of policies and decisions?

• How will you assure the people of your accountability?

• Will you address gay rights?

• Do you plan to move forward on previously rejected proposals to make illegal discrimination based on sexual orientation?

• Will you give up your lucrative job in the private sector?

• Will Government give The Royal Gazette back its adverts?

• When will the next public election be held?

• Will there be an open and transparent tendering process for all government contracts?