Cape Verde’s Parliament on Wednesday January 24 unanimously approved the first amendment to the new nationality law, the proposal for which had been withdrawn from the agenda at the previous session.
The document presented by the Government was approved in general by the unanimous vote of the 63 MPs present in the session room – Cape Verde’s Parliament is made up of 72 MPs.
Voting in favor of the amendment were 34 MPs from the ruling Movement for Democracy (MpD), 25 from the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV, opposition) and four from the Independent and Democratic Cape Verdean Union (UCID, opposition).
According to the president of the National Assembly of Cape Verde, Austelino Correia, the proposal will now “go down” to the specialized Committee for the “necessary adjustments”, and then return to the plenary for approval in the specialty.
In the first parliamentary session of January 2024, the PAICV caucus asked for the law to be removed from the agenda, justifying it with the need for the joint Committee to look into the changes.
The Government intends to make this first amendment to the new nationality law, after recognizing the “great infelicity” in the wording on the attribution of this title to descendants, which came into force five months ago.
The executive noted a “misalignment” in the new nationality law, in force since August 22, 2023, which, among other points, stipulates that “the individual born in Cape Verdean territory, when he or she does not hold any other nationality” is considered Cape Verdean.