London, Thanasis Gavos

The polls in Britain opened at 7 am local time (9 in Greece) for expatriate voters who registered on time in the special foreign electoral rolls. The process will end at 7pm local time.

The polls have been set up in five British cities for the participation of 4,938 of our compatriots in the parliamentary elections.

Registered voters attend a total of 12 polling stations.

In London, 3,982 voters have the right to vote, who will be divided into four polling stations in the Greek embassy building (Holland Park) and another four in the Greek Kindergarten and Primary School (West Acton).

In Edinburgh the 282 registered voters will come to the Greek School in the church of Agios Andreas, in Birmingham the 274 eligible voters will go to the building of the Hellenic Cypriot Home (The Midlands Greek and Cypriot Association), in Leeds the ballot box for 250 voters will be set up in building of the Greek Orthodox Community of Three Hierarchs and in Glasgow the 131 voters at the Greek School of Agios Luke.

Eight UK election monitors have been appointed to facilitate voting.

In each electoral division, the voting will be conducted before an electoral committee that will consist of the representative of the judicial authority, as chairman, and three voters from among those included in the special foreign electoral lists of the relevant diplomatic region.

Representatives of the judicial authority are mainly appointed permanent ambassadors or consular attachés and secretaries, administrative employees of embassies and consulates, graduates of Higher or Higher Schools who serve in the relevant diplomatic region.

Voters should have a passport or ID with them.

Abroad, State ballots will be used and therefore no preference cross is marked next to the names of the candidates.

Once the polls are closed, the electoral commissions will count the files without opening them. The ballot bags with the ballots of voters in Britain and the rest of the countries will be transported the next day to Athens by air and then, with a police escort, to the Athens Court of Appeal.

The votes will be sorted there when the polls close in the Greek territory.