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Cross-party committee for diaspora vote to be set up, minister says

Cross-party committee for diaspora vote to be set up, minister says

A cross-party committee that is to discuss the conservative government's proposal to grant full voting rights to Greeks living abroad is to be set up in due course, Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos said on Monday.

A letter is to be sent to parties during the course of the day, asking them to appoint a representative for the committee, Theodorikakos said. 

The goal of the panel will be to establish common ground on the issue and to determine the way in which representatives of diaspora Greeks will be appointed. 

The same issue was the focus of meetings last Friday between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and opposition party leaders.

The ministry's aim is for the committee to be established, and to convene, with the week. 

In comments on Skai radio, Theodorikakos called on SYRIZA's leader to participate in the panel, underlining the need for compromise on all sides if there is to be consensus on the issue and the bill is to be approved by all 300 MPs in Parliament.

The government's only red line, he said, is that the vote of diaspora Greeks should be equal to that of those voting in their country – a precondition that SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras rejected last week, arguing that it would "distort the country's political balance." 

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