PM introduces voting by mail
The introduction of the postal vote announced at a cabinet meeting in Athens on Thursday by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is seen as an effective tool against absentee ballots.
The new system will initially apply in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament and will apply to all expatriate Greeks and special categories at home, such as the disabled, the elderly, the sick, students or young people working away from the place where they are registered to vote.
Mitsotakis stated that the specific section “is something that most states have adopted,” adding that “it is time for it to apply in our country,” wanting to highlight that the system in question has already been tested abroad. He noted that it would allow the casting of ballots by “tens, hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens who would not have participated under other circumstances.”
Mitsotakis also noted that it will facilitate voting by young people, who, especially at the beginning of summer, are most likely not to vote. This possibility, he said, “broadens the body of citizens who participate in the elections.”
He also said the government will not divide the country into constituencies, as it had considered in the past few months, maintaining a practice followed since 1981. Selection of candidates on the ballot will be done with crosses.
