The intention is contained in the proposal to amend the Law of the Official Voter Registration, whose discussion continued Friday in the National Assembly in Luanda.
The recent constitutional amendment, which provides for votes outside the country, and the need for "updating the financial penalties," provided for in his proposed amendment, are the central purposes of the law.
The registration of adult citizens "is of national scope and extends to its updating outside the country, covering all Angolan citizens over 18 years of age registered in the Identity Card Database (BDBI)," they defend.
The proposed amendment to the law defines that the units for carrying out voter registration are the municipalities, urban districts, communes, neighborhoods and settlements, and the areas of consular jurisdiction corresponding to the diplomatic representation abroad.
"The updating of the voter register abroad is carried out provided that the material conditions are created and the monitoring mechanisms are ensured by the competent entities under the terms of the law," the document reads.
In the area of financial penalties, the Angolan authorities also propose a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine of 500,000 kwanzas to one million kwanzas for those who "fraudulently promote more than one registration of the same citizen.
Whoever, "by violence, threat or fraudulent artifice, prevents or induces a citizen not to promote his or her voter registration," notes the proposed law, is punished with a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine of 500,000 kwanzas to one million kwanzas.
For obstructing the detection of double voter registration and the lack of "procedures to remedy the irregularity in due time," a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine of 500,000 kwanzas to 750,000 kwanzas is proposed.
This proposed amendment to the Official Voter Registration Law, an initiative of the Government, also determines a prison sentence and fine for those who "introduce, alter, delete, damage or suppress data or computer programs" in the program that feeds the Major Citizens Database (BDCM).
The fine, as a result of disturbing the proper functioning of the BDCM, varies between 500 thousand kwanzas and one million kwanzas.
The agent of the registering entity who negligently fails to fulfill his registration obligations "shall be punished with a fine of 350,000 kwanzas to 500,000 kwanzas," the authorities also propose.
The proposal to amend the law and the bill to amend the Official Electoral Registration Law, an initiative of the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA, in opposition) are under discussion in parliament with a view to merging both documents.
The next general elections in Angola are scheduled for 2022.
