Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has promised to reintroduce legislation giving Greeks in Australia and around the world the right to vote if he is returned to parliament at the upcoming Greek general elections on October 4.
Mr Karamanlis said he would do everything in his power to help give Greeks of the Diaspora the right to vote after his original plan was rejected by parliament earlier this year.
The plan, was rejected by most opposition parties, including the main opposition Pan Hellenic Socialist Party (PASOK) and the Greek Communist Party (KKE), because they did not agree with the formula the ruling New Democracy has tried to introduce.
“If we are re-elected by the Greek people we will reconfigure our plan and reintroduce it to parliament enabling the Greeks of the Diaspora to vote at the elections following,” Mr Karamanlis said.
The news comes following results released last week that showed more than 80 per cent of Greek living abroad would like to be given the right to vote according to a recent study conducted by Kapa Research for the Centre of Hellenic Studies at Harvard University.
According to the results 80.9 percent of Greeks living outside of Greece said the Greek state only considered the needs of Diaspora Greeks when it required something from them in return, while 58.8 per cent said they felt the Greek Government had completely forgotten about them.
Meanwhile, 20.8 per cent of those polled said they felt the Greek Government had no clear strategy on how to deal with the needs of the Greeks of the Diaspora.
Those polled said what they need most from the Greek Government is greater assistance and more tools to improve Greek language education to the Greek children of the Diaspora.
They also asked for less red tape and more assistance in dealing with property issues.