The measure is included in the proposal to amend the Legal Framework for Civil Identification and Issuance of the National Citizen Identity Card, approved this Tuesday in general in the National Assembly, with 133 votes for, 41 against and eight abstentions.
The document passed with votes for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), votes against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola-Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE), the Party for Social Renewal (PRS) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and abstention of deputies not part of a parliamentary group.
The Secretary of State for Justice, Orlando Fernandes, underlined the convergence in the need to solve the problem of the four million Angolan citizens who have a voter card without an identity card.
Orlando Fernandes, who responded to the various concerns, fears and risks raised by deputies in the discussion of the law, namely the alleged fraudulent obtaining of voter cards, said that it would be neither proportional nor fair to keep these millions away from citizenship.
"They are people who live in their homeland, in a real stateless condition, they are people who actually served to vote, but they cannot exercise the other rights and duties that result from citizenship," he said.
The leader considered the fears fair, pointing out that "this is a process that will naturally have its risks, but residual".
The Secretary for Justice stressed that the risks are weighed, cautious, remembering that a similar process was practiced in 1975, with the combatants who acted in the liberation struggle.
"They did not bring a ticket, civil registry and this problem had to be solved. In 2002, with the peace achieved, this problem also had to be solved, so there is some 'know-how' in this area", he assured.
Orlando Fernandes reaffirmed that the intention is to give nationality to Angolans and not to foreigners, as feared by the deputies, taking into account the supposed granting of electoral cards in 2017 to foreign citizens.
The draft law provides that citizens holding voter cards, issued under the Law on the Official Electoral Registration of 2017, exceptionally granted even without the identity card or birth certificate, with the presentation of documents such as a photograph, signature or fingerprint or testimonial evidence, may apply for the issuance of the identity card, provided that it is the former and that the applicant has no other document required by law for the issuance of that document.
Irrespective of the presentation of the voter's card, the services responsible for issuing the identity card shall always confirm the voter's card details presented by the applicant, in the database of the senior citizen, so as to avoid fraud.
According to the ruler, the largest citizen database and the ID card database are already in interoperability.
When the draft law comes into force, the application for the issuance of the identity card is instructed by the presentation of the full narrative certificate, the seat or full copy of the birth certificate, the baptism certificate, provided that this occurred before 1 July 1963, or the voter card, issued until 31 March 2017, in cases where the citizen does not have any other of the documents mentioned.
