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The All Progressives Congress on Tuesday said free, fair and credible elections, would be the best way to avoid post election violence.

It also dismissed allegations by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party that the party was plotting to foment trouble should it fail to have its way in 2015.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this while speaking to reporters in Abuja.

He said the APC was committed to a peaceful conduct of the elections and had called on all other parties to join the APC by educating their members on the need for rancour-free elections in 2015.

According to him, the APC has through its recently concluded presidential primary, demonstrated to the world that a free and fair poll is possible in Nigeria.

He noted that this was only possible if the political actors and the government were serious in entrenching true democracy.

The APC spokesman said the PDP had only embarked on an intense campaign to portray the APC in a bad light when it realised that its approval rating had plummeted over the years.

Mohammed expressed fears that the Internally Displaced Persons, who were victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, might be disenfranchised, as no arrangements had been made for them to vote.

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Credible elections will guarantee peace APC

Vice-Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo | credits: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com

The running mate to the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, said the poor state of the nations economy has plunged many Nigerians into poverty.

He added that there must be a change of government at the federal level to liberate Nigerians from poverty.

The former Attorney General of Lagos State spoke at a town hall meeting with artisans, tradesmen and farmers, organised by the Lagos State Government in Ikeja.

He said only those who love poverty and would want to remain perpetually in hunger that would vote for President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

Osinbajo said, No one is ignorant of all that is happening in this country. No one likes hunger and poverty, but people are hungry. In 2015, only those who love to continue to be hungry that would prefer that the government in power at the centre remains there.

By Gods grace, we will remove them from the seat of power. The people there presently cannot do anything because they dont know what to do. They lack the capacity and capability to govern the country.

In the same vein, the APC governorship candidate in Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, said APC, from the period of Bola Tinubu to Governor Babatunde Fashola, had continuously provided good governance to the people of the state, adding that if voted into power, his government would not deviate from the principle.

Ambode said, Our promise to you as a party is to provide good governance and able leadership. We want to take good care of your businesses so that you will have more to take care of yourself, your children and your home. There must be change of government at the Federal level. APC must take over in Abuja.

Fashola noted that if Nigerians observed the situation of the country critically, they would find that the country was not better off than it was in 2011.

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Only poverty lover will vote Jonathan Osinbajo

Labor has extended its two-party-preferred lead over the Liberals in SA, the latest Newspoll shows.

South Australia's Labor government has capped off a strong year with a surge in voter support, the latest Newspoll shows.

The News Corp Australia poll, published on Wednesday, shows Labor has a two-party-preferred lead of 53 to 47 per cent over the Liberal opposition.

The Liberals' primary vote has plunged from 44.8 per cent at the March state election to just 33 per cent, with Labor claiming 35 per cent of the vote.

Voters overwhelmingly backed Premier Jay Weatherill, with 47 per cent of voters nominating him as preferred leader compared with 29 per cent for Steven Marshall.

The results will come as another blow to the Liberals, who had been widely expected to reclaim power at the March election after 12 years in opposition.

Despite claiming 53 per cent of the two-party vote, the Liberals failed to win key marginal seats, paving the way for Labor to form minority government with the support of independents.

Labor shored up its parliamentary numbers in May when former Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith made a shock defection, throwing his support behind the government as an independent cabinet minister.

The Liberals' woes deepened in December when Labor claimed a stunning win in a by-election for the southern suburbs seat of Fisher, once considered safe Liberal territory.

Labor's victory was driven partly by a strong negative campaign on federal issues, including Abbott government cuts to health spending and uncertainty about future submarines contracts.

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Strong support for Labor in SA: Newspoll

In a speech Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. House, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) declared immigration reform dead.

He chastised and baited Republicans in Congress for blocking reform, and declared that winning the White House without the support of a growing Hispanic population will become mathematically impossible. "The Republican Presidential nominee, whoever he or she may be, will enter the race with an electoral college deficit they cannot make up," said Gutierrez.

Gutierrez didn't mention the H-1B visa in the speech, but if he's right, and comprehensive immigration reform is indeed dead, so is raising the cap on H-1B visas.

Immigration reform advocates have successfully blocked any effort to take up the immigration issue piecemeal. They don't want support for broader reform to peel away.

For the next few weeks, the tech industry and other supporters of such legislation will continue to push ahead on immigration reform.

While tech lobbyists agree that the odds of passing immigration legislation are slim and shrinking, they still aren't ruling it out. So far, it's been mostly the Democrats who are declaring immigration dead. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has yet to say so definitively.

There really isn't that much time left.

The long August recess will soon be here, and post-recess lawmakers will be spending a lot time in their districts campaigning for reelection. It's not too early to start thinking about what the next Congress might do, and if the Republicans take control of the Senate, the tech industry will face a new obstacle: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

Grassley is the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the immigration issue. He is the leading critic of the H-1B program in Congress, and in line to be the committee chairman in a Republican victory. "The H-1B program is so popular that it's now replacing the U.S. labor force," he said in 2007.

Grassley has been a consistent critic of the H-1B program. One year ago this week, the Senate passed its bipartisan immigration bill that would more than double the H-1B cap, increasing it from 85,000 to 180,000 annually. "Let's peel back the onion and see how much this stinks," said Grassley, as his efforts to add H-1B restrictions to the bill failed.

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If immigration reform is dead, so is raising the H-1B cap

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We dont want our workers deported. Thats the bottom line.

Kim Shanahan, Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association

Welcome to the other side of illegal immigration.

Its the flip side of secure our borders first, the side that depends on the labor of folks from somewhere else to deliver products to Americans.

Like homes.

And restaurant meals.

And any number of services that used to provide the jobs that used to provide preparation for or membership in the countrys now-shrinking middle class.

Lets face it. Many Americans just wont work as carpenters, framers, drywall installers, bricklayers, roofers and painters. They wont pour concrete or lay adobe. Its honest work, and the pay is pretty good. But its just too hard. Its easier to collect government bennies, play video games and get subsidized insurance.

Thats the system weve allowed to develop, and weve filled the void with immigrant labor. No case better illustrates this than the need to import tens of thousands of mostly undocumented Hispanic workers to rebuild New Orleans after Katrina. And this need for immigrant labor has been in the face of high unemployment and record low workforce participation numbers in the U.S., especially among people under 35.

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Editorial: Immigration reform must factor in workforce needs