Political will is required to improve the electoral process in Nigeria, EU Chief Observer, Maria Arena, said at the weekeend in Abuja.
Arena said this when she led a team from the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to meet with the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
She told the APC leadership about the plan to publish its final report which contained 30 recommendations on the 2019 general elections today.
She said the team deemed it important to meet the leadership of the governing party during its mid-term visit because the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report required political will which the APC could provide.
Arena, who underscored the need to start the process for the reform of electoral process early, said it would be too late to begin one year to the general elections.
She also called for a process that would raise the inclusiveness of women in politics, stressing that the performance of women in the last general elections was worse than previous ones.
This, she said, is not a good signal for women in Nigeria and Africa.
She said women who constitute more than 50 per cent of the population must be involved in electoral process. Responding, the APC Deputy National Chairman, South, Chief Niyi Adebayo, expressed the readiness of the ruling party to study the report ‘diligently’.
“I can assure you, we as a party, we will study it diligently. I can assure you, we have the will. We will work to ensure that improvement that needs to be worked on should be worked on,” Adebayo also said.