The Minister of State and Head of the President's Military House, Francisco Pereira Furtado, who presented the document to the deputies, said that the proposal is in line with the Angolan Constitution, during this Thursday's plenary session.
"The proposed National Security Law constitutes the fundamental law for the country's national security and defense system. The current law is largely out of alignment with the Constitution, which thus justifies the need for its adaptation to constitutional principles and norms", he said.
"This proposal clarifies and updates the concept of a national security system made up of the sectors of national defense, guaranteeing order and preserving state security and broadens its understanding to three essential subjects: the citizen, society and the State", he stressed.
The diploma, composed of six chapters and 46 articles, also establishes a "clear regime that defines the nature of citizen participation, collaboration and protection, as well as the framework for intersectoral and international cooperation within the scope of the national security system", concluded the ruler.
In turn, the deputy of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Pedro Sebastião, praised the discussion of the law in the plenary of the National Assembly, within the framework of safeguarding national independence and sovereignty.
"A State that claims to be democratic and governed by the law cannot at any time neglect instruments that guarantee its national independence and sovereignty", he pointed out.
The deputy of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) Domingos Palanga expressed, however, "uncontained indignation" at the fact that the diploma's proponent "brings excessively militaristic content".
"In a clear and notable disarticulation with the new approach to security issues that specialized manuals on the subject suggest. I want to believe that the country is not faced with yet another instrument for maintaining power", he said.
And the deputy and president of the Humanist Party of Angola, Florbela Malaquias, considered that national security needs an updated legal framework to regulate the preventive and reactive action of the State, to maintain social peace and promote political, economic, and legal, financial, cyber and to ensure the continuity of democratic institutions.
The law, which must now be sent for discussion in the specialty, was approved with 112 votes in favor, zero against and 85 abstentions.
In this session, the deputies also approved as a whole the proposed laws on Insurance Mediation and on Combating the Smuggling of Petroleum Products.
