A bill to amend the Electoral Act No. 13, 2022, to provide for early voting at elections passed its second reading in the Senate on Thursday.

The bill is titled “A Bill for an Act to amend the Electoral Act No. 13, 2022, to provide for early voting at elections, including criteria for eligibility, procedure at the elections, and other related matters, 2025”.

It was introduced by Senator Abdulaziz Yar’adua (APC-Katsina).

Leading the debate, Yar’adua emphasised that the bill aimed to enfranchise Nigerians who were denied the opportunity to vote on Election Day due to their duties, such as INEC officials, security personnel, journalists, and observers.

He noted that more than one million citizens who help ensure the success of elections were currently disenfranchised because they were deployed far from their registered polling units.

“This bill seeks to correct that by making provisions for early voting for such citizens,” the legislator said, arguing that excluding such individuals from voting undermined the integrity of the election process.

Yar’adua stressed that the bill would solve the disenfranchisement and enhance the democratic process by ensuring that all eligible citizens could participate in the electoral system, regardless of their profession or duty on Election Day.

Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC-Ondo) and Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Abba Moro, supported the bill, highlighting the importance of reducing barriers to voting and improving Nigeria’s electoral process.

The Deputy Senate President, Senator Jibrin Barau, who presided over plenary, referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters for further legislative action and to report back in four weeks.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans to abolish NHS England and bring the management of the health service under direct government control. In a speech outlining his vision for civil service reform, Starmer confirmed that the “arms-length body” responsible for overseeing the NHS will be scrapped in an effort to reduce bureaucracy and improve patient care. The decision, he said, would bring the NHS back into democratic control and ensure that funding is redirected to frontline services rather than administrative costs. I cant in all honesty explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy,” Starmer stated. “That money could and should be spent on nurses, doctors, operations, GP appointments. He further emphasized that the move would allow the NHS to focus on cutting waiting times and improving healthcare delivery. So today I can announce I am bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arms-length body NHS England. That will put the NHS back at the heart of government where it belongs, freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses. An NHS refocused on cutting waiting times at your hospital. NHS England, which currently leads the National Health Service in England, is responsible for statutory functions, regulatory powers, and overseeing service delivery. However, Starmer argued that its existence results in unnecessary duplication of efforts. Addressing a cancer patient during a Q&A session following his speech, he pointed to overlapping administrative roles within NHS England and the Department of Health. If you can believe it, weve got a communications team in NHS England, weve got a communications team in the health department of the government; weve got a strategy team in NHS England, a strategy team in the government department. We are duplicating things that could be done once. By eliminating such redundancies, he said, the government could redirect resources to where they are needed moston the frontline. If we strip that out, which is what we are doing today, that then allows us to free up that money to put it where it needs to be, which is the front line, he added. Starmer also stressed that power should be shifted to healthcare workers rather than being tied up in excessive bureaucracy. We want to push power to frontline workers and away from the bureaucracy which often holds them up, he said.The post UK PM Keir Starmer to scrap NHS England appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.

… I’m the authentic National Secretary, Enemchukwu insists

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA– The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Thursday, urged the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court to hands off the suit Senator Samuel Anyanwu filed to challenge his removal as the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The electoral body, in a counter-affidavit it filed in opposition to the suit, argued that it would be in the interest of justice for all the parties to await the outcome of an appeal on the dispute, already pending before the Supreme Court.

In a 10 paragraphed affidavit that was deposed to by one Mohammed Ayuba, INEC said it was in line with its powers, as well as its Regulations, Guidelines and Manuals, that any correspondence between it and political parties, must be signed by both the National Chairman and National Secretary of the political parties.

The Commission told the court that it deliberately decided all these while, not to comment on Anyanwu’s legal action.

“That the 1st defendant did not intend to join issues with the plaintiff, pending the determination of the appeal at the Supreme Court,” INEC stated

Besides, it argued that “the courts jurisdiction is ousted in matters dealing with internal affairs of political parties.”

At the resumed proceeding in the matter, counsel to INEC, Mr. Ahmed Mohammed, drew the attention of the court to the counter-affidavit his client filed against Senator Anyanwu’s suit, on March 7.

Likewise, other defendants in the case indicated that they filed preliminary objections to challenge the competence of the suit.

On his part, Chief Udeh-Okoye Enemchukwu, who the party had since endorsed as Senator Anyanwu’s replacement, told the court that all the parties had since entered their respective briefs of argument before the Supreme Court.

He insisted that Senator Anyanwu had ceased to be the National Secretary of the PDP, following the concurrent judgements of both the High Court and the Court of Appeal in Enugu .

Chief Udeh-Okoye, who is the 4th defendant, told the court that though the plaintiff was elected at a National Convention the party held on October 30, 2021, for a four-year tenure, he, however, lost the position after he was nominated as candidate of the party for the governorship election that held in Imo State in 2023.

He told the court that whereas Article 47(5) of the PDP Constitution requires any officer elected into the party’s Executive Committee at any level, to resign before running for any elective office, Article 47 (6) made provision for the appointment of someone from the same area or zone, to serve out the tenure of such officer.

The 4th defendant told the court that following Senator Anyanwu’s refusal to vacate the office, the Board of Trustees of the PDP, in a letter dated October 12, 2023, drew the attention of the National Chairman of the party, Ambassador Umar Damagun, to the constitutional breach.

He said the South East zone Executives of the party, in a meeting held at Enugu on October 16, 2022, nominated him to serve out the residue of Senator Anyanwu’s remaining tenure in office.

Chief Udeh-Okoye told the court that the litigation that led to the concurrent judgements of the courts in Enugu, was a fallout of the meeting where he was nominated, stressing that the Supreme Court is already seized of the facts of the case.

“I am aware that subject to the unlikely event that the plaintiff’s appeal at the Supreme Court is allowed, I remain the authentic and substantive National Secretary of the PDP,” the 4th defendant added in the affidavit he filed through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Paul Erokoro, SAN.

Meanwhile, Justice Inyang Ekwo adjourned the matter till March 25 to hear all the preliminary objections alongside the substantive suit.

Senator Anyanwu had approached the court, praying it to stay the execution of the judgements that sacked him from office.

It will be recalled that Court of Appeal in Enugu had in a judgement it delivered last December, upheld a High Court verdict that sacked Senator Anyanwu and recognized Chief Udeh-Okoye as the national scribe of the party.

The court held that Anyanwu’s continued stay in office as National Secretary was in breach of PDP’s Constitution, having contested and emerged as the party’s candidate in the governorship election that held in Imo State last year.

Dissatisfied with the verdicts, Anyanwu lodged an appeal that has been reserved for judgement by the Supreme Court.

The BOT and National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP had in line with the subsisting judgements, endorsed Chief Udeh-Okoye as the National Secretary of the party.

Anyanwu outrightly rejected their decisions, insisting that the position is still the subject of an ongoing litigation.

The post PDP Crisis: INEC asks court to hands off Anyanwu’s case appeared first on Vanguard News.