Only 40 Greeks living in Australia have shown interest in voting in the Greek elections. The law that has recently passed Greek parliament excludes most Greeks.

The inclusion of the place of birth in the criteria that allows expatriate Greeks to participate in national elections was proposed by Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law at the Athens Law School Nikos Alivizatos.

Speaking to COSMOS FM in New York, Alivizatos proposed that expatriates born in Greece who have Greek identity cards should be able to vote from their place of residence, given that they already have the right to participate in national elections.

He argued that “there is time to implement this proposal even for the upcoming elections, as he said that only a small amendment is needed”.

Alivizatos estimated that the Greek political system is ready to accept this idea and urged the expatriates to make a concerted effort to claim this right.

“On the issue of expatriate voting, there is a solution that will allow at least half of the expatriates to vote, and overcome the difficulties of the current law. I remind you that the Greek government’s argument for not allowing everyone to vote is that there is a need to prove a living link between the Greeks of the diaspora and the motherland, I will not dispute that,” stressed Alivizatos.

“An easy way of proving someone’s Greek identity is the place of birth. If a Greek-American who has a Greek identity and can vote, makes the trip to Greece, shows his ID card at the consulate and it says he was born in Greece, he should be able to vote without any other difficulty. For this (to work) a three-line amendment must be made. If you claim this right, there is room for it to come into place by the next April/May elections. As long as you coordinate your actions. I advise you to do so. The political system is ready to accept it. Because the evidence, as in the identity card, cannot be questioned. At least those of you who were born in Greece should be able to vote.”

The time of “party charters” loaded with students from Europe and America arriving to vote in the national Greek elections in exchange of a three-day-stay are long gone but the need for diaspora Greeks to vote increases. Following the great exodus of tens of thousands of young scientists in search of work due to the economic crisis in the past decade, there may be more Greeks living and working overseas than ever before. The exact number of those who have left in recent years is not officially known – but different surveys estimate it ranges anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000.

THEN AND NOW

While voting from their place of residence has been a long-standing demand of expatriates for decade, the relevant legislation (Law 4648/2019 passed in December 2019) making it possible limits the range of those eligible significantly, mainly allowing those who have emigrated relatively recently to vote.

As stipulated by the law (4648/2019), a prerequisite for a Greek expatriate to be registered on the special electoral rolls of voters abroad is to have resided in Greece for a total of two years in the last 35 years and to have submitted a tax return E1 or E2 or E3 or E9 for both previous years, even if the return is zero. This national election is the first time that Greeks living abroad will be able to vote from their place of residence, but only a few have so far have reportedly made use of the right given to them by law. As the Interior Ministry’s figures show, only 3,900 have received approval through the relevant platform, while the number of applications filed does not exceed 5,200.

Of the thousands of Greeks living in Britain only 717 have registered to vote from their place of residence and despite their small numbers they are the slargest group of non-resident voters. Some 300 Greeks living in several German cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Munich, Dresden, Dresden, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Nuremberg, Dortmund) are expected to vote from their place of residence, while from Switzerland the number of registered voters reaches 220.

Meanwhile, less than 200 EU civil servants appear to have applied to vote from Belgium.

Surprisingly, even though Melbourne alone has a Greek population larger than the third biggest city in Greece, the number of registered Greek immigrants from Australia is 40.

The total number of applications submitted by 15 January 2023 was 5,165 and it is estimated that about 800 have been rejected.

Applications have also been received from Malta, Istanbul, Mexico, Thailand, Chile, Sudan, Budapest, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Tel Aviv.

Given that the platform will close applications twelve days before the elections fears of many missing the deadline remain high.

Should the Greek national elections be held on 9 April 2023 the final call will be 10 March leaving special electoral rolls abroad open only until 27 February 2023.

To register visit apodimoi.gov.gr