Luanda - The National Assembly (AN) on Thursday approved the Draft Law on the Effective Institutionalization of Local Authorities.
The Bill, a legislative initiative of the UNITA Parliamentary Group, obtained 170 votes in favour, none against and no abstentions.
Member of Parliament Mihaela Weeba, who presented the document in the Chamber, said that the country is waiting for the platform of understanding to be reached so that local authorities are effectively institutionalized throughout the national territory.
For his part, MPLA deputy João Azevedo Martins said that his party, imbued with a spirit of high political maturity, made the bill presented by UNITA possible, despite having detected provisions that could create an 'institutional vacuum and a dangerous situation such as creating ad hoc expedients'.
According to the deputy, the MPLA's position of approving the document is based on the orientation of its leader, President João Lourenço, in order to speed up the approval of the municipal legislative package.
Another factor was the reading made of the MPLA's electoral performance in the last general elections of 2022, in which it emerged victorious in 143 of the country's 164 municipalities.
This perception makes the party work hard to expand the advantage obtained at the level of the municipalities, taking care, through the competent bodies, of the creation of organizational, executive and legislative conditions for the effective institutionalization of the municipalities, he concluded.
Executive Proposal
The Executive also presented its proposal on the Institutionalization of municipalities, which will be voted on, in general, on Friday.
The Executive's proposal, presented today to the Chamber by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Dionísio da Fonseca, aims to establish the rules on the institutionalization of municipalities and the transition measures between the local administration of the State and the municipal administration.
The Bill determines the acts and formalities for the institutionalization of municipalities and the acts that must be carried out to ensure a responsible and efficient transition to municipalities capable of safeguarding national unity and the balanced and harmonious development of the country.
This law had already entered Parliament in the previous legislature, when it was approved, only in general, having expired by virtue of the Rules of Procedure and parliamentary custom.
This custom determines that proposals and bills that did not have a final overall vote during the previous legislature expire with the course of the next legislature.
The Municipal Legislative Package already has 10 of the 13 legal instruments that will regulate the exercise of municipal power in the country, within the framework of the ongoing project for the implementation of local authorities.
This is the Law on the Symbols of Local Authorities; Organic Law Approving the Statute of Local Elected Representatives; Law on Acts and Forms of Local Government Bodies; Law on the Local Government Fees Regime; Law on the Financial Regime of Local Authorities; Organic Law on Local Elections; Law on the General Regime of Inter-Municipal Cooperation; Organic Law on the Organization and Functioning of Local Authorities; Law on the Transparency of State Attributions and Competences for Local Authorities; and the Law on Administrative Protection over Local Authorities.
The Bill, promulgated by the President of the Republic, define the general framework for the attribution of powers of the municipal function, composition and functioning, as well as the principles and rules.
In addition to the 10 legal instruments, three more will be added, namely the Draft Law on the Institutionalization of Local Authorities; the Draft Law that Approves the Remuneration Statute of the Holders of the Bodies and Services of Local Authorities and the Organic Law of the Municipal Guard. DC/SC/DOJ
