With the positions of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the political leaders of the opposition, the discussion and voting of the draft law of the Ministry of the Interior on the “Removal of the restrictions on registration in the special electoral lists of foreign voters” continues today in the Parliament.

The discussion of the bill in the Plenary began with the positions of the rapporteurs and special buyers of the parties and according to the Conference of Presidents depending on the number of MPs who want to take the floor the completion and voting of the bill should be completed tomorrow.

For the passing of the bill, according to the constitutional provision (S.51 par.4), at least 200 positive votes are required in the Plenary.

ND, PASOK-KINAL, SPARTIATES, NIKI and PLESIS ELFTHERIAS have been in favor of the bill on the Authority, in their discussion and voting by the Standing Committee on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice. KKE voted against while SYRIZA and HELLENIC SOLUTION reserved themselves for the Plenary.

According to information, the placement of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the Plenary Assembly is expected around one in the afternoon. Afterwards, the head of SYRIZA’s KO, Sokratis Famellos, and then the president of PASOK-KINAL, Nikos Androulakis, will ask for the floor.

The draft law is an amendment to articles 2 and 4 of Law 4648/2019 and essentially removes the restrictive conditions that had been set regarding the right to participate in the elections of Greeks abroad from their place of residence.

In particular, the provisions of the bill provide that: Voters who wish to be facilitated in exercising their right to vote will be registered on their own in the special foreign electoral rolls. Enrollment in the special foreign electoral rolls can be done at any time upon application by the interested party in accordance with the procedure of article 4 of Law 4648/2019. Correspondingly, the modification regarding the residential address, the suspension or the cancellation of the application for registration in the special foreign electoral rolls.

The acceptance or rejection of the application is made by decision of the Directorate of Elections of the Ministry of the Interior. Henceforth, in his application, the voter fills in his details and specifies the non-State area of ​​jurisdiction of the diplomatic or consular authority, in which he wishes to exercise his right to vote.

The registration application is finalized by a decision of the Directorate of Elections of the Ministry of the Interior. The request for change and suspension or deletion will immediately become final. The conditions for registration in the special electoral lists of foreign voters and the application of the restrictions for registration in the special electoral lists in the elections for the nomination of members of the European Parliament are abolished, as well as the authorization of the Ministry of the Interior for the ex officio search for supporting documents or the extraction of the required information from the databases of the Greek State which were provided for in Law 4648/2019.

At the same time, SYRIZA has submitted its own relevant amendment for the “Right to elect and be elected by expatriates without restrictions” which provides for the creation of four expatriate constituencies so that Greeks abroad can elect their own representatives.