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

After decades of proposals and planning, a prediction – exhortation included in the Constitution of Greece and finally a law of the state passed in 2019 with a high cross-party consensus, the time has come for a timeless demand of diaspora Hellenism to take shape, albeit with conditions that exclude a large part of voters.

The 22,825 Greeks who are registered in the special electoral rolls abroad go to the polls, today Saturday, one day before the elections in the Greek territory, from 07:00 to 19:00 local time.

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

More than 4,870 Greek voters are registered in polling stations in the United Kingdom (set up in London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh), 3,326 in Germany (in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Dresden, Hanover, Nuremberg, Aachen, Wuppertal, Cologne, Bielefeld, Dortmund and Ludwigshafen), 1,935 of the Netherlands (The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven), 1,680 of the USA (San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Chicago and Tampa) 1,629 in Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp), 1,462 in Cyprus (in Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos), etc.

For the exact address of the polling station, in which interested parties can vote, they can be informed from the “Learn to Vote” digital platform on the website of the Ministry of the Interior, https://mpp.ypes.gov.gr/#/ by filling in the fields Surname, Name, Father’s Name, Year of Birth, Mother’s Name (optional), or just the Surname and Special Electoral Number fields (if they know it). Alternatively, they can be informed by the telephone lines 2131361500 and 2131313800, which are open 24 hours a day this weekend.

Voters come to their polling station having necessarily with them, as usual, some form of identification such as a Greek identity card (even a cut one) or their Greek passport or driver’s license or individual health booklet of all insurance funds issued by the relevant Greek authorities.

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

Greek sailors can also vote in the electoral divisions abroad, even if they are not included in the special electoral lists abroad of the electoral divisions. However, they are required to have with them, in addition to an identity card or passport, their Greek naval brochure.

For the vote of the electors, the State ballots of the parties and therefore no preference crosses needed next to candidate names. However, any “crossed” ballots will be counted as valid.

The votes recorded in the foreign polling stations are counted in the general result for the distribution of the total number of seats allocated to each party, as well as in the result for the distribution of State seats of each party.

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

When the polls are closed, the electoral commissions do not sort ballots and extract the result of the voting in each electoral division. They are limited to counting the folders, without opening them. The electoral bags with the expatriates’ ballots will be gradually transported over the next two days by air to the Greek capital and the Athens Court of Appeal, where they will be opened and the votes will be sorted when the polls close in Greek territory.

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