The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 2019 poll

  • ‘Osinbajo not running for presidency in 2019’

    ‘Osinbajo not running for presidency in 2019’

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday disassociated himself from a group known as “Osinbajo Volunteers” which has started campaigning for his election as President in 2019.

    The group, which is recruiting volunteers for the project, wants Osinbajo to stand as presidential candidate in the 2019 election.

    While its website featured the activities of Osinbajo, the group exonerated the vice president, saying: “Note that Osinbajo did not endorse this volunteer group. We have never met him. We are strong believers in the fact that he is the right ruler for Nigeria and must create a people’s volunteer base for him.”

    Distancing Osinbajo from activities of the group the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, said on his Twitter handle “please disregard this website created by faceless people for mischievous purposes. It has absolutely nothing to do with the vice president.”

  • 2019: PDP zones Nasarawa governorship ticket to North Senatorial District

    2019: PDP zones Nasarawa governorship ticket to North Senatorial District

    The Nasarawa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has zoned its governorship ticket for the 2019 general election to the North Senatorial District.

    The district, which has never produced a governor since the state was created, comprises four local governments – Akwanga, Nasarawa, Eggon and Wamba –

    The party Chairman in the state, Mr. Francis Orogu, announced the party’s decision after an expanded elders and state executive caucus meeting held at the state secretariat in Lafia on Saturday.

    Orogu said the decision was reached by all organs of the party “in the spirit of peace, unity, moral consciousness and political perfection.”

    According to him, the zoning of the governorship ticket is in line with chapter 5, section 35(1 c) of the PDP Constitution.

    He said the party was working out modalities with stakeholders toward zoning other positions to other senatorial zones “ to ensure justice and fairness.”

    Meanwhile, the immediate past Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Mr. Innocent Lagi, has defected to the PDP from the Labour Party.

    Lagi, who was officially received into the party at the meeting, said his decision was borne out of a deep conviction that the state needed a change of leadership.

    “I was an Attorney-General under the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led administration and would have easily joined them from the Labour Party, but I am a principled person and my ideals are opposed to the kind of objectives being pursued by APC in Nasarawa State,” Lagi said.

    He said the PDP was a reflection of Nigeria and was better positioned to effect the change desired by Nigerians.

    NAN

  • INEC ready for transparent, credible elections in 2019’

    Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)‎ on Thursday said with the introduction of modern technologies, it is ready to conduct more transparent and credible elections in 2019.

    Speaking at the official flag off of the Continuous Voter Register in Wamakko, Sokoto State, the National Commissioner ‎in-charge of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, Hajiya Amina Zakari, said the commission has improved its transparency drive by introducing e-collation and transmission of results  as well other processes.

    She said, “We want to build and strengthen the confidence of electorates in the commission’s activities towards ‎enfranchising eligible voters and the nation’s democracy.

    “We have networked our activities via Internet facilities provided to ease and project more acceptable data and results.”

    Zakari noted that registered voters are the bedrock of a credible election and electoral processes.

    The INEC official said the CVR has been designed to update and validate voters’ register in accordance with the existing laws as contained in Article 10 of the Electoral Act.

     

     

  • We are re-strategising for 2019 general elections – INEC

    The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Monday said the commission was poised to build a functional electoral system ahead of 2019 general elections.

    Yakubu stated this at the opening of a two-day strategic workshop to review the implementation of the commission’s strategic plan for 2012-2016, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    The chairman said the workshop was part of the commission’s strategic plan towards successful general elections in 2019 and beyond.

    “The objective of this workshop is to retrospect and project in two days, and come up with better ideas and solutions,” NAN quoted Yakubu as saying at the workshop.

    “We need to re-strategise for the 2019 general elections and beyond to come up with practical solutions on how to strengthen the electoral process.

    “This we will do based on the policies of fairness, transparency, credibility and impartiality.”

  • 2019: PDP zones presidency to North

    2019: PDP zones presidency to North

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has zoned its 2019 presidential ticket to the North. The party, however, did not state which of the three zones in the region will take the ticket.

    The party’s Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, made the disclosure at the party secretariat on Wednesday while receiving the report of the Post-Election Review Committee.

    Secondus said the decision was part of the recommendations of the committee, chaired by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.

    He described the report as a turning point in the fortune of the party, saying the PDP is well organised and ready to play the role of vibrant opposition.

    The party chairman said the report of the committee would be presented before other organs of the party for adoption and ratification.

    Ekweremadu had, while presenting the report, stressed the need for the party to strictly adhere to the zoning principle at the local, state and national levels.

    He said, “Since the last president of PDP extraction came from the southern part of Nigeria, it is recommended that PDP’s presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election should come from the northern part of the country.

    “This is in accordance with popular views expressed in the submissions to the committee. This will also assuage ill feelings in the north over any perceived breach of the party’s zoning principle.

    The committee also recommended that the title of “party leader” be discarded forthwith at all levels, as it has no basis in the constitution of the PDP, adding that this would go a long way to strengthen the structure of the party at all levels.

    Similarly, the committee also recommended that the party do away with the use of delegates for picking its candidates for elections, saying the process had been grossly compromised and abused.

    Instead, it recommended the adoption of direct primaries as means of electing candidates for elections at all levels. This, according to the report, was a practical way of returning the party to the people.