2019: EU, APC meet over credible, peaceful polls

EU had met the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP last week during which the opposition said it lost confidence in the ability of the electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to conduct credible polls.

But Niyi Adebayo, APC Acting National Chairman while responding to the EU delegation’s enquiries on APC’s assessment of the country’s election management body and the justice system ahead of the elections, said the party was confident of ability of INEC to conduct free, fair and credible elections and the judiciary to resolve disputes that may arise for the election process

Adebayo who is the APC Deputy National Chairman – South thanked EU for their longstanding interest and developmental support for the country’s electioneering process, and expressed readiness for the forthcoming 2019 general elections.

Nicolay Paus, EU Exploratory Team Leader stated that, the team has already met with other election stakeholders in the country to recommend whether the EU would deploy election observers to monitor the 2019 general elections.

Paus said, “we have met with a range of electoral stakeholders – INEC, some political parties, ministries of foreign affairs and information, civil society and some of the international organisations working on electoral support.

“The purpose is really to collect as much information as possible to recommend whether to deploy an observer mission for the 2019 elections. This decision will be taken in Brussels.

“As you may remember in 2015, there was a mission here which arrived around six weeks bbefore the elections and stayed some weeks after the elections. We also had a number of long-term observers who followed the electoral process as well”, he stated.