Croatia government falls as PM loses no-confidence vote

Raising the prospect of a snap election, members of parliament oust technocrat Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic.

Croatia's parliament has overwhelmingly voted to oust technocrat Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic, who resumed office just five months ago, triggering the fall of the government and raising the prospect of a snap election.

The vote on Thursday in the 151-seat assembly was 125 for the ouster 15 against and two abstentions.

The no-confidence vote was put forward by the ruling coalition's biggest party, the conservative HDZ, which had helped install Oreskovic but then fell out with him and accused him of being incapable of leading the country amid deep economic and social problems.

"I came in with the best intentions to help my homeland," said Oreskovic, a Canada-educated financial expert, after the vote.

"I am a little sad because I think we could have achieved more," he said, adding that he will serve as acting prime minister until a new government is elected.

Members of parliament will now have 30 days to generate a new government or face a snap election.

Oreskovic, with no party affiliation, lost the support of the HDZ after he clashed with their leader, Tomislav Karamarko, who has been accused of conflict of interest due to his links with a lobbyist for Hungary's state oil company.

Karamarko on Wednesday stepped down from his deputy prime minister post, pledging to oust Oreskovic and collect enough votes in the parliament to form another government with a new premier.

Freezing Accounts Is Backed By Law – EFCC 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says freezing of accounts suspected of being used for financial crimes is a mandatory investigative step backed by law.  

The anti-graft agency was responding to reactions that trailed the freezing of accounts of suspects that were investigated or currently being investigated.

A statement by the Head, Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, on Monday stressed the need to explain the reason behind the actions in order to prevent misinformation.

“Indeed, Section 34 (1) of the EFCC Act 2004 empowers the Commission to freeze any account suspected of being used for financial crimes.

“The section stipulates that, the Chairman of the Commission or any officer authorised by him may, if satisfied that the money in the account of a person is made through the commission of an offence under this Act, or any enactment specified under Section 6(2) (a)-(f) of this Act, apply to the Court ex-parte for power to issue or instruct a bank examiner or such other appropriate authority to freeze the account,” the statement read.

Incidental To Investigation  

The agency also noted that similar provision in the Money Laundering Prohibition Act also allowed the EFCC Chairman or his representatives to place a stop order on any account or transaction suspected to be involved in any crime.

“The intendment of these provisions is to ensure that the Commission safeguards suspected proceeds of crime pending the completion of its investigation.

“It is without prejudice to the social standing of the holder of such accounts or whether they are individual, corporate or government accounts,” the statement added.

The anti-graft agency maintained that the freezing orders were incidental to investigation and doing otherwise would jeopardise the prospects of recovering stolen assets.

Modu Sheriff Refused Entrance Into PDP Secretariat

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Ali Modu Sheriff Refused Entrance Into PDP Secretariat Channels Television. 

The Ousted chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Nigeria, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has been refused entrance into the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja by security officials.

Armed policemen were at the entrance of the secretariat on Monday, denying the former leader of the opposition party entrance.

Mr Sheriff led his group to Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the PDP but was prevented from going in by the armed officials.

He told reporters outside the party’s headquarters, that he remained the chairman of the party until 2018 and decried the presence of policemen with arms at the party’s office.

To Save The Party

The former Senator added that the court did not recognise the constitution of a caretaker committee.

Senator Sheriff, who was at the secretariat with the party’s national secretary and national treasure, said: “As you may be aware, that we have been facing some challenges since we put off the national convention in Port Harcourt last month.

“We, therefore, consider it the height of self-deceit for anyone to pretend that the PDP is not in crisis.

“But I want to assure you that we have been working round the clock to see how we can resolve the matter without being on the wrong side of the law.

“All the judgments that are available today recognise us as the sole chairman of this party.

“We have a court order in our hand to allow us to go into our office but the inspector general of police, after having a truce with him that nobody should be allowed until we have decided, he decided to take the law into his hands and allow the wrong people,” he told a gathering of supporters at the secretariat.

  Senator Sheriff also threatened to enforce his rights to the office beyond the blockade by the police.

“We will be law abiding, but Nigeria Police is made for Nigerian people to observe the rule of law.

“The law clearly stated that the Inspector General of Police should give us police to go into the office, but he brought platoon of police to block the office.

“We will go back because we do not want some miscreants to take the law into their hands.

“We will wait and take the mater beyond Nigeria Police Force,” he said

His prevention from entering the party’s secretariat is coming weeks after he was removed as the chairman of the party.

It is the second time that security personnel will barricade the entrance of party’s secretariat.

Members of the party had earlier been prevented from entering the national office days after the removal of Senator Sheriff.

He was removed at a convention held in Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria on May 21, with a caretaker committee set up to co-ordinate the affairs of the party.

The Caretaker Committee headed by  Senator Ahmed Makarfi, a former Governor of Kaduna State, was mandated to elect a new National Working Committee for the party within three months.

After his removal, the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, said that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP, which Senator Sheriff led, was dissolved to save the party.

The opposition party is struggling to regain popularity after it lost power to the All Progressives Congress in the 2015 presidential election.

POLITICS: President Obama's approval rating is at its highest point in years, and it could be a huge boon for Hillary Clinton

http://static2.uk.businessinsider.com/image/575dfca4dd0895ea098b45ed-538/barack-obama-and-hillary-clinton.jpg Obama's approval rating is at its highest point in years, and it could be a huge boon for Hillary Clinton Brett LoGiurato 4h 67

Barack Obama and Hillary ClintonAP Barack Obama is prepared to campaign for his party's likely nominee more than any sitting president in recent history - starting next week in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

That could be a big problem for the GOP. And a huge boon for Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee whom Obama finally formally endorsed earlier this week.

"I'm fired up," Obama said in a video endorsing Clinton.

And ready to go, said Obama . Last month, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that President Barack Obama's approval rating had jumped to 51% - its highest point since his second inauguration.

NBC's team of political analysts called it the "most important number" out of the new poll.

"Why is it important? Because it means that Obama will be an asset to Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail unlike he was in the 2014 midterms, when his approval rating was in the low 40s," NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Carrie Dann wrote.

The 50% level might seem arbitrary. But historical precedent suggests it could bode well for Clinton, Obama's former secretary of state.

Early this year, Obama's approval rating hit 50% in the weekly average from Gallup's daily survey. Almost three months later, his number in Gallup's poll stands at 54%, his highest level since January 2013. For Obama, whose approval ratings have been stuck in the mid- to low-40% range for much of his second term, it was a notable bump.

"While it's hard to pinpoint precisely why Obama's approval rating has risen among Democrats recently, there are a number of plausible explanations," wrote Andrew Dugan, a Gallup analyst, and Frank Newport, the organization's editor-in-chief, in a post earlier this year.

One of the explanations, the pair concurred, was that "the unusual status of the Republican primary race - exemplified in particular by frontrunner Donald Trump's campaign style and rhetoric - may serve to make Obama look statesmanlike in comparison."

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event on the day several states held presidential primaries, including California, at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff ManorThomson Reuters Trump has come into Obama's crosshairs recently. And with good reason: More so than at any other presidential hand-off in recent history, so many elements of the current administration's legacy are at stake.

The presumptive Republican nominee has pledged to undo signature achievements on healthcare (the Affordable Care), the environment (historic new regulations aimed at curbing climate change), and foreign policy (the Iran nuclear deal).

Ben LaBolt, a former spokesman for Obama's presidential campaigns, told Business Insider that those themes will become evident as the president launches into what will be his final campaign: preventing a Trump presidency. And LaBolt suggested Obama is the perfect messenger.

"President Obama gives Hillary Clinton a hat trick: He can help unite the party by bringing out Bernie Sanders supporters into her camp, deliver an aggressive contrast about the threat posed by Donald Trump, and ensure that all the supporters of the Obama coalition show up in November," LaBolt said.

He added: "Not only does he have strong standing among Democrats and independents, but he has a unique ability to mobilize the young voters and diverse communities she'll need to win."

Obama's approval ratings at this point are far better than his predecessor, President George W. Bush, off whose unpopularity Obama thrived during his 2008 run. His level is most directly comparable to former President Ronald Reagan, who in March 1988 held a 51% approval rating, according to Gallup.

That same year, voters selected George H.W. Bush - Reagan's vice president - to succeed him.

"Yes," said Ari Fleischer, President George W. Bush's press secretary, when asked earlier this year if Obama's apparent rising popularity poses a problem for the Republican Party.

"Certainly, going into an election spring and summer, it's better to have an incumbent president increasingly popular rather than less popular if you're the incumbent party," he told Business Insider.

The numbers present a striking contrast to some data points associated with the current Republican presidential frontrunner.

President Barack Obama speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner on April 30, 2016 at the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington, DC.Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images Trump's favorability numbers are without precedent for a modern general-election candidate, according to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. Overall, 58% of voters viewed him unfavorably, according to the survey. And his net-favorability rating was negative 29 - only slightly better than two months before, when he garnered the worst net-favorability rating in the history of the NBC/WSJ poll for a major presidential candidate.

"I've been doing this [since] 1964, which is the Goldwater years," NBC/WSJ co-pollster Peter Hart told NBC of the relative unpopularity of many of the candidates earlier in the year. "To me, this is the low point. I've seen the disgust and the polarization. Never, never seen anything like this. They're not going up; they're going down."

However, Obama's approval rating at this point is actually lower than that of President Bill Clinton in March 2000. But, as Gallup has noted, the 2016 election is somewhat different than the one that featured George W. Bush running against Al Gore, Clinton's vice president.

Hillary Clinton is attaching herself to much of Obama's legacy. And Obama remains favorable to wide swaths of constituencies whom Clinton needs to turn out to vote in November. The president held high approval ratings among African-Americans (90%), Democrats (82%), Latinos (73%), and voters aged 18 to 34 (64%).

And despite the strong primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders, in many ways, Clinton has run an incumbent-style campaign, and she has much of the party's establishment rallying behind her candidacy. That wasn't the case for Gore in 2000.

As Gallup's Dugan and Newport wrote earlier this year:

In comparison, the two most recent candidates running to succeed a two-term president of the same party - John McCain running to follow the unpopular Bush, and Al Gore trying to succeed the popular but scandal-prone Bill Clinton - went to greater pains to ensure they were not associated with the outgoing president.

They concluded: "Prior to that, George H.W. Bush in 1988 presented himself as a natural heir to the Reagan legacy and was able to win his own term."