All the representatives of the community who were invited to submit their opinions, for its establishment postal vote in the European elections and in the national referendae, they congratulated the government on its legislative initiative, pointing out that the postal vote is of fundamental value in modern democracies, because it will facilitate the exercise of the right to vote and connect even more the expatriate with the country, it will strengthen the ties of emigrants with the Hellas.

They also asked to extend the possibility of exercising the right to vote by postal vote in the national elections as well, and they even asked the government to set a timetable for the introduction of postal voting from the very next national elections.

Some of them called for the development of an unalterable electronic voting system and for the establishment of electoral districts abroad, for the better representation of expatriates and to strengthen their voice.

In the Public Administration, Public Order and Justice committee, the elaboration of the bill of the Ministry of the Interior continues “Election of MEPs, facilitation of voters through postal voting, clearing of electoral rolls and other provisions of the Ministry of the Interior“, with the planned provisions to be introduced in the Plenary, next week, where the interventions of the political leaders are also expected.

The bill was also welcomed by ESAmeA, but called for further measures to facilitate the exercise of the right to vote, raising issues such as braille ballots for the visually impaired, as a guarantee of the secrecy of the vote and falsified electoral will and other issues of accessibility to the personal presence.

The Deaf Federation of Greece also submitted proposals for television accessibility and interpretation, imposing sanctions on television stations that do not comply with their obligations regarding subtitling and interpretation with clarity in their programs.

Two student associations were invited to submit their opinions on the bill.

On the other hand, the student association of the Faculty of Philosophy of EKPA “Kostas Varnalis”, said that young people should not be removed from the electoral processes, nor should the participation of young people be discouraged, but that it should be alive and encouraged.

In this climate, he asked for special electoral rolls, for the university departments to be closed, at least two days before the elections, to facilitate the exercise of the right to vote by the students.

The Law Student Association of Democritus was in favor of the postal vote so that no young person, whether student or seasonal worker, is excluded from exercising the right to vote, so that young people are not subjected to travel costs from the areas where they study to the place of exercising the right to vote .

The president of the Personal Data Protection Authority, Konstantinos Menoudakos, submitted a series of observations on the guarantees of personal data protection.

Regarding the issue of the abolition of polling stations abroad (expatriates will only be able to vote by mail and not in person, in the European elections), Deputy Minister of the Interior Theodoris Livanios intervened in the debate and explained that the abolition of the of polling stations abroad, in the European elections, was deemed necessary to ensure the secrecy of the vote, in the event that few expatriates attend a polling station.

Despite the reservations expressed by the opposition parties, in individual provisions of the draft law on the postal vote, the expatriate hearing will largely judge their attitude, in the preliminary vote, which will follow shortly, when it takes place the third session dealing with the analysis of the articles.

The opposition had requested that the company Singular Logic be summoned to a hearing, in order to form an image of the security valves for the integrity of the electoral process. Their request was rejected by the governing majority.