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Interim National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has expressed worries over what it called avoidable deficiencies in the handling of the ongoing voter registration in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

It described the exercise as shoddy, noting that it was a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise the people of the state from participating in the June 21 governorship election.

The party, in a release signed by the Director of Publicity and Media of the party in the state, Segun Dipe, noted that the shortcomings observed in the handling of the registration exercise in most of the designated centres showed lack of adequate preparation by INEC.

The APC noted that it was a deliberate attempt to short-change the people, stressing that the outcry was based on the facts on the ground.

The APC also blamed INEC for the use of obsolete equipment and inadequacy of staff and materials, noting that the current happenings ran contrary to INECs promise to get it right with the Ekiti governorship election.

The statement reads in part, This is not about one party; it is about a people who want INEC to conduct a credible election for them to have a democratically elected governor in the saddle. It is about a people who do not want to relive their past experience. And it is about a people who do not want to be short-changed by anyone. They deserve to be duly registered without hiccups. They should be encouraged, not discouraged.

The use of faulty or obsolete systems was noticed right from the first day of the exercise in some of the designated centres, where data collected could not be stored in the systems and thus got wiped off immediately. It is, therefore, possible that those whose registration have been concluded and issued the temporary cards may still have their names missing from INECs list. This is likened to the Anambra experience, where the names of those that began with alphabets O-Z could not be found.

Another show of shame is the noticeable skill deficiency displayed by the so called INEC officials. We observed that they most times fidget with the equipment, without readily knowing what to press or how to manipulate them. They even vent their frustration on the innocent citizens. Most times, they would ask impending registrants to wait for hours before they could be registered, if at all. The result of such endless wait is impatience and agitation.

Meanwhile, some politicians in Ikole-Ekiti on Thursday embarked on house-to-house sensitisation of residents, as the continuous voter registration entered its second day.

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Ekiti: APC knocks INEC for poor voter registration

The Progressive Party was a factor in the presidential campaigns of three men Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, and Henry Wallace. There were a few Progressive Party organizations spanning this period of time but after the 1952 elections, they disappeared entirely.

Its first incarnation came in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt led progressive elements out of the Republican Party. Roosevelt had made no secret of his low opinion of President William H. Taft and felt he could not support the ticket. Taft had particularly angered Roosevelt, an ardent conservationist, by removing Gifford Pinchot as chief forester.

Roosevelt struck out on his own and formed the first Progressive Party, saying he was as fit as a bull moose, from which came the colloquial name "Bull Moose Party." His platform called for tariff reform, stricter regulation of industrial combinations, womens suffrage, prohibition of child labor, and other reforms.

The new party nominated Roosevelt for president and Hiram Johnson for vice president. Although the Progressives finished well ahead of Republicans in the election, they lost to the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson. When Roosevelt returned to the Republican fold in 1916, the Progressive Party vanished for a time.

In 1924, liberals were so frustrated with conservative control of both major political parties that they formed the League of Progressive Political Action, better known as the Progressive Party. Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, a Republican, decided to run for president as an independent, but later accepted the nomination from the Progressive Party. Senator Burton K. Wheeler, a Democrat from Montana, was nominated for vice-president.

The party advocated government ownership of public utilities and such labor reforms as collective bargaining. It also supported farm-relief measures, lower taxes for persons with moderate incomes, and other such laws. Although La Follette received 17 percent of the popular vote, he only carried Wisconsins electoral vote.

In 1934, La Follettes sons organized a progressive party in Wisconsin. Robert La Follette, Jr. was elected to the Senate but was beaten in 1946 by Joseph McCarthy.

Yet another progressive party was formed in 1948. Former New Deal Democrats had become dissatisfied with the policies of Harry Truman and wanted their own party. They nominated Henry A. Wallace for president and Glen H. Taylor for vice president. They advocated liberal policies that included rights for minorities, curbs on monopolies, and the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act.

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Progressive Party - U.S. History

The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project is a university-chartered research center associated with the Department of History of The George Washington University

Progressivism is the term applied to a variety of responses to the economic and social problems rapid industrialization introduced to America. Progressivism began as a social movement and grew into a political movement. The early progressives rejected Social Darwinism. In other words, they were people who believed that the problems society faced (poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare) could best be addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace. Progressives lived mainly in the cities, were college educated, and believed that government could be a tool for change. Social reformers, like Jane Addams, and journalists, like Jacob Riis and Ida Tarbel, were powerful voices for progressivism. They concentrated on exposing the evils of corporate greed, combating fear of immigrants, and urging Americans to think hard about what democracy meant. Other local leaders encouraged Americans to register to vote, fight political corruption, and let the voting public decide how issues should best be addressed (the initiative, the referendum, and the recall). On a national level, progressivism gained a strong voice in the White House when Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901. TR believed that strong corporations were good for America, but he also believed that corporate behavior must be watched to ensure that corporate greed did not get out of hand (trust-busting and federal regulation of business). Progressivism ended with World War I when the horrors of war exposed people's cruelty and many Americans associated President Woodrow Wilson's use of progressive language ("the war to make the world safe for democracy") with the war.

For more information on progressivism see the following web sites:

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The Progressive Era (1890 - 1920) - The George Washington ...

Radical Islamisation threatens progressive family legislation and the elimination of women's freedom to make their own choices, writes LIZ PAYNE

There was one place where the usually joyous International Women's Day celebrations took place under a menacing shadow. Many women came to the streets cloaked head to toe in black, as if in mourning.

This was Baghdad on Saturday March 8 this year.

The following day in London, a woman who had been there on the streets talked almost in disbelief about the draft law approved by the Iraqi cabinet two weeks ago and now with parliament for approval.

The new family legislation enshrined in the so called Ja'afari Personal Status Law (after a Shi'ite imam) and put forward by the Islamic Shia Al-Fadhila Party will, if approved, turn the clock back for Iraqi women and girls by not just decades but centuries.

Its contents, say some commentators, will impose an Iranian-style theocracy and campaigners have dubbed it "a crime against humanity."

It will invest jurisdiction over family matters with the Shi'ite Islamic establishment, which will hear cases brought under this legislation in religious tribunals presided over by an Islamic judge.

It will completely eradicate the current hard-won secular code - dating from 1959 - which enshrines women's rights in marriage, child custody and inheritance law and which has been regarded as the most progressive in the Middle East.

Under the provisions of the new law men will exercise medieval control over women, with jurisdiction over every aspect of their lives.

Men will have the right to sex with their wives whenever they want it, giving them carte blanche to assault and rape with impunity.

See the article here:

Morning Star :: Progressives mount resistance to new law

Lisa Tyson, executive director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, speaks at a rally outside the Theodore Roosevelt Executive & Legislative Building.

Lisa Tyson, the director of the nonprofit Long Island Progressive Coalition, is just weeks away from her due dateshes expecting a girland days away from the luncheon celebrating her organizations 35th year of fighting for social and human dignity.

Shes got a lot on her plate right now, whether its getting her house ready to accommodate a new baby, or making sure that the LIPCs vitally important fundraiser on March 15 is a success at the Timber Point Country Club in Great River.

But she looks remarkably relaxed for someone whose stated purpose in life is to make things better for future generations, including her own, when the conservative opposition has so much power invested in maintaining the status quoif not in making things worse.

Taking a moment out of her busy schedule to have lunch in Garden City recently, Tyson smiled as she sat back in her chair at Wild Fig mediterranean restaurant.

Ive been doing this for a long time! says the 42-year-old native of Merrick. Im a local girl, she grins.

Tyson found her way to LIPC by looking through the phone book. Shed gone to the Fashion Institute of Technology and majored in fashion marketing and communications when the first Gulf War broke out. That outbreak provoked her to start questioning the government since the conflict was less about global justice and more about oil. Next she went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to enter the urban and environmental studies masters program, where she was often the only woman in her classes.

Back on the Island in 1995, Tyson met her future husband, John, and managed a music club called the Right Track Inn in Freeport. When it was time to move on, Tyson decided that there has to be a Long Island organization I can work for, so I went to the white pages and looked under Long Island something-something to see what would turn up.

And so she came to the LIPC, started part-time as a secretary and got hired as a project coordinator. Shes been the director for 12 years.

Its the best job in the world! she says emphatically. I love it when someone says you cant do something and you do it.

Originally posted here:

Long Island Progressives Celebrate 35 Years of Kicking Ass