“Without twists and turns, we tell you directly that you have brought a dangerous, reactionary bill, which concerns the exercise of the right to vote, an unconstitutional bill, which of course is not improved, only rejected. And yesterday with the amendment you tabled, which is essentially a new bill in order to extend postal voting to national elections for expats abroad, you made it even more dangerous and reactionary,” said the head of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoubasin his speech in Parliament, on the government’s bill on postal voting.

He said they have huge responsibilities for the support they provided in the government SYRIZA, PASOK and Pleusi.

He underlined that with the bill the government “opens up dangerous avenues for the manipulation of the vote, changing its very character” and characterized the bill in question as “another fringe bill of the government and this will not change because supposedly progressive parties will support it” .

He added that it is clear that the government is betting “on the method of “salamiization” of changes, which it wants to pass in the exercise of the right to vote and the electoral law”.

As the government explained, it first brought back the “unacceptable and misleading bonus in the parliamentary elections, then it abolished the criteria that had been established by a large majority in 2019 for the exercise of the right to vote of Greeks outside the Territory and now it is bringing the postal vote and changing the way of distribution of seats in the European elections”.

Referring to what was said by the ND rapporteur in Commission he raised the question whether “the next step will be the possibility for Greeks abroad who are not registered in the electoral rolls to also vote”.

He recalled that the KKE had warned that the government was going to a “massive alteration of the electorate, including people who have no real ties to the country, only emotional ties and if, and consequently they will not suffer the consequences of any of their choice, which of course means that they can be more easily manipulated.”

He described as “hypocrisy” the government’s claims that it “cares about the diaspora”, stressing “if you care about the diaspora, look at providing solutions to its problems” and adding “if you care about facilitating the participation of diasporas in elections, make more electoral divisions to vote in person, those who have real ties to the country, without having to travel miles.”

Noting that the postal vote “opens up dangerous roads inside the country as well”, D. Koutsoubas asked the following question: “Finally give us a serious answer, to the following simple question, both you of the government and you other people who are willing to vote in favor. On June 9, once the polls for the European elections are closed and the result is out, will anyone be able to guarantee us that those who voted by postal vote did so on their own, directly and secretly, and without being subject to direct pressure and blackmail? Pay attention: I say direct, because we know very well that in the current system based on the exploitation of the weak, therefore also on the various kinds of dependencies and coercions, pressures and extortions will exist anyway.

“However, at least until now, no matter how much pressure was exerted, the voter, at the moment of voting, was alone with himself, inside the screen, without anyone seeing him and could take responsibility for his choice. You come and take it down and you haven’t provided the slightest documentation,” he added.

D. Koutsoubas stated, among other things, that the KKE “has cited specific data showing that in all countries where postal voting has been used or is being used, phenomena of electoral fraud, vote manipulation, even results have been annulled”, while he noted that “indeed, the data from all these countries show that, nowhere does the participation of the people seem to have increased, due to the postal vote. Of course, this is 100% expected, since abstinence has mainly political and social causes and not technical ones”.

He characterized as hypocritical the talk of “facilitating seasonal workers”, stressing that if the government really wanted to make it easier for them “it would have accepted the KKE amendment so that they could vote in person at the polling stations of their place of work, based on special electoral rules lists that will be drawn up under the responsibility of DYPA (Public Employment Service)”.

He also said that the government is reading the Constitution “as it sees fit” as the Constitution explicitly speaks “of simultaneous voting throughout the Territory”, while the Scientific Committee of the Parliament pointed out that with the postal vote many people will vote with other criteria and in a different political climate than the rest of the voters, “it is reason in itself” for the government to withdraw this bill here and now.

“With this bill, a completely different logic of participation in the electoral process is introduced. It is a much more passive, distant attitude, where each and every one, from their home or somewhere else, however far from collective processes and from any political ferment, will fill out a form and mail it,” he said, noting that “this is about extending the remote voting logic that you legislated for unions. Of the single ballots you are unsuccessfully trying to impose on student unions. And the electronic parties that instead of active members have followers, who at most show up to vote for a leader with 2 euros and then no one sees them again.”

He emphasized that for the KKE, participation “is judged first of all in everyday life, in the workplace, in the union, in the parents’ association, and that is to say, in the collective way of dealing with common problems” and “there, first of all, it gives all its strength” .

“If this participation does not exist, then participation in the electoral process once every four years is undermined from the beginning and much more easily manipulated,” he emphasized.

He also said that by changing the way seats are allocated in the European elections, the government “reduces the electoral measure to share more seats in the first allocation and thus potentially favor yourself, as the largest party at least at the moment”.

He called on the government “to completely abolish the undemocratic limit of 3% in both parliamentary and European elections, as well as the positive bonus in parliamentary elections, so that all votes are represented equally”.

D. Koutsoumbas called on the government to withdraw “this wretched bill together with the amendment” and emphasized at the end of his speech:

“We know you won’t because you have other goals. We will see the consequences and the Greek people will see them very soon in our opinion. But then you won’t be able to fool them. The responsibility will be all yours and those who give you a helping hand today.

In any case, be sure that the people will find a way to overcome all the obstacles you put up and give you an answer, not only for this, but for your policy as a whole.

And in the European elections in June, strengthening the KKE even more, but mainly in the battles that are being fought now, every day, every hour. We will be there, everywhere ahead”.