Greece’s Interior Minister, Takis Theodorikakos, made clear on Tuesday that only Greek citizens with a Greek tax number will be eligible to vote if they live abroad. The Minister put an end to speculations that the majority of Greeks living abroad, incl diaspora Greeks, would be able to vote and eventually change the composition of the electorate and alternate the voting results.
Speaking to Thema FM, Theodorikakos said that the voting registers will be updated based on the taxis net which is the taxation registration basis.
He estimated that the upcoming legislation to grant Greeks living abroad the right for postal vote will affect around 350,000 people.
For the legislation to pass through the Parliament, 200 votes will be needed. A fact that New Democracy majority of 158 seats in a Parliament of 330 is not enough and the ruling party will need to gain the support of opposition parties.
For this purpose, Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will hold successive meetings with the political leaders of the five opposition parties on Friday, October 11, 2019.
- SYRIZA 86 seats,
- KINAL/PASOK 22
- KKE 15
- Greek Solution (far right) 10
- MeRA25 9
SYRIZA has expressed its strong opposition to the legislation arguing that the government wanted to “go back two or three generations” of diaspora Greeks.
Also KINAL/PASOK and Communist KKE did not endorse the initial proposals of New Democracy.
Left-wing and socialist parties are concerned about the vote by Diaspora Greeks. That is, the vote of “2. and 3. generation” of diaspora Greeks in countries with the majority of them in USA, Australia and Canada, considering that the majority of them would vote “conservative.”
At the same time, an estimated half a million Greeks left the country during the years of the economic crisis.
Will PM Mitsotakis manage to convince them with new proposals?
