Today is a historic day for her. diaspora, since for the first time Greeks abroad participate as voters in national elections from the place of residence, instead of going to Greece.

After decades of proposals and planning, a provision included in the Greek Constitution, and finally a state law passed in 2019 with high cross-party consensus, the time has come for the timeless plea of ​​Diaspora Hellenism to take shape, albeit with conditions that exclude the majority of voters.

22,825 Greeks registered on special electoral lists abroad go to the polls today, Saturday, the day before the elections in Greece.from 07:00 to 19:00 local time.

Voting takes place at 99 polling stations have been established in 85 cities in 35 countries of the world and, in particular, in the buildings of embassies and consulates of the Greek authorities, offices of the holy temples of the Greek Orthodox Church and buildings or shops of Greek communities, associations or other Greek organizations. To create a polling station in the city, the condition was the registration of at least 40 voters. In those cities where the required number is not reached, voters exercise their right to vote in another city or even a country.

More than 4870 Greek voters are registered at the polling stations in the United Kingdom (London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh), 3326 in Germany (Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Dresden, Hanover, Nuremberg, Aachen, Wuppertal, Cologne, Bielefeld, Dortmund and Ludwigshafen), 1935 in the Netherlands (The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven), 1680 in the USA (San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Chicago and Tampa) 1629 in Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp), 1462 in Cyprus (in Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos), etc.

The exact address of the polling station where interested persons can vote can be reported from the digital platform “Learn to vote” on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, https://mpp.ypes.gov.gr. /#/ by filling in the Last Name, First Name, Father’s First Name, Year of Birth, Mother’s First Name fields (optional) or just the Last Name and Special Electoral Number fields (if they know it). In addition, they can be informed by calling 2131361500 and 2131313800, which are open 24/7 this weekend.

Voters come to the polling station be sure to carry with them, as usual, some form of identification, such as a Greek police identification card (even if cut off), or their Greek passport, or driver’s license, or an individual medical book of all insurance funds issued by the competent Greek authorities..

For the first time, voter identification can also be done using digital identification available through the government portal https://wallet.gov.gr.

Greek sailors may also vote in constituencies abroad, even if they are not included in the special electoral lists of foreign constituencies. However, they must carry, in addition to their ID card or passport, a brochure of the Greek Navy.

For voters to vote State Bulletins parties and therefore do not need preference crosses next to the names of candidates. However, any “crossed out” ballots will be considered valid.

Votes registered in overseas polling stations count towards the total distribution of the total number of seats allocated to each party, as well as the distribution of state seats for each party.

The ballots, envelopes, screens and ballot boxes were sent to the diplomatic authorities by the Ministry of the Interior and are identical to those that will be used to vote in Greece.

When polling stations close, election commissions do not sort ballots or extract voting results for each constituency. They limit themselves to counting folders without opening them. Alien ballot packets will be gradually airlifted over the next two days to the Greek capital and the Court of Appeal of Athens, where they will be opened and votes will be sorted after polling stations close in Greece.

It is recalled that in order to be registered on the special lists of foreign voters, voters (permanently or temporarily) outside the territory must have resided in Greece for a total of two years in the last 35 years and file a tax return in the current year. or the previous tax year. The application is made electronically on the platform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs apodimoi.gov.gr.

Source: RES-IPE