You are a Greek living abroad and want to cast your vote: postal voting can be the solution

Postal voting is not new in Greece. Its history goes back to 1975, when, for the first time, the Greek Constitution referred to the adoption of a law defining how voters living abroad can exercise their right to vote. After years of consultations and discussions, the latest constitutional revision in 2019 added a new paragraph to Article 54, expanding the legislator’s flexibility regarding the vote of citizens residing outside Greece and, for the first time, allowing the possibility of establishing one or more electoral districts for Greeks living abroad.

In the 2024 European elections, postal voting was implemented for the first time for anyone who wished to use it, regardless of their place of residence. A total of 202,000 voters inside and outside Greece registered to exercise their right to vote by mail, of whom 50,204 were from abroad; 36,645 ultimately cast their ballots.

Greeks living abroad did not vote much differently from those in Greece. New Democracy (ND) led with 40.17% and 14,455 votes. The main difference was that left-wing parties performed better in postal voting, while far-right parties did worse, despite initial fears that postal voting would boost right-wing parties because diaspora Greeks—especially those living in Australia and the US—often have the reputation of being more conservative than Greeks in the mainland.

For example, Yanis Varoufakis’s MeRA25 came third in the postal vote, with 9.22% and 3,318 votes, but performed dramatically worse overall, finishing ninth with 2.54% and failing to win a seat in the European Parliament. By contrast, Kyriakos Velopoulos’s Greek Solution did very poorly in the postal vote, coming seventh with 2.37% and 852 votes, even though it performed significantly better among voters in Greece, where it finished fourth with 9.30%, winning two seats in the European Parliament.

Since then, the Greek political scene has changed, with new political parties emerging, such as Stefanos Kasselakis’ Kinima Dimokratias, as well as the yet unnamed parties of former Prime Ministers Alexis Tsipras and Antonis Samaras, and of activist Maria Karystianou, the mother of one of the 57 victims of the Tempi train crash. All of them are competing to gain representation in the Greek Parliament in the 2027 national elections, which are more important than the European elections; therefore, the number of Diaspora Greeks who will vote is likely to increase.

On 4 March, the Greek Parliament approved a bill allowing Greeks living abroad to vote by mail in national elections, following a series of postponements and controversies. The key constitutional provisions on postal voting passed with a two-thirds supermajority, as 201 MPs voted in favour, backed by the governing New Democracy party, PASOK, four MPs aligned with Kasselakis’ party, and several independents. However, a provision for the immediate implementation of a special electoral district for overseas voters did not secure the required supermajority and is therefore expected to take effect in about 18 months.

“In recent days, another important reform was passed in Parliament. From the next national elections, Greeks abroad will be able to vote by mail from where they live, just as they did in the European elections. Without having to travel many kilometres to the nearest polling station.” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on a video on social media.

“The vote of a [Greek] citizen in Melbourne, London, or Toronto carries the same weight as the vote of a citizen in Athens, Thessaloniki, or Heraklion. It is only natural. Equal democratic rights for all Greek women and men, wherever they live,” he noted.

‘The passing of this bill will not be a victory for the government, but for all Greeks living abroad who love Greece and want to contribute to its development,’ said Interior Minister Theodoros Livanios on 19 February at the joint meeting of the Committees on Public Administration and Hellenism of the Diaspora.

The method will be similar to that used in the 2024 European elections. Voters abroad will cast only their chosen party’s uncrossed State ballot (as in the 2023 consulate voting), and parties must place at least one diaspora candidate in the top three positions on their list. These votes will count toward the national total for seat allocation, including in any snap repeat elections. A new three-member overseas electoral district has also been approved, but it will only come into effect at least 18 months after the next election, since it was not approved together with the postal vote on 4 March.

Specifically, the allocation of all 300 parliamentary seats will be determined by the total number of votes each party combination receives across all electoral districts, including the new constituency for Greeks living abroad. The three seats in the Greek Diaspora constituency will be distributed in exactly the same way as in the other three-seat constituencies (e.g., Argolis, Laconia, Arcadia, Boeotia). They will be drawn from the pool of national MPs, which will be reduced from 15, as it is today, back to 12, as was traditionally the case.

The reactions

The bill received both positive and negative reactions in the Greek media. For example, the US-based Greek-language newspaper The National Herald called postal voting for Greeks in the diaspora “one of the major events in the modern history of Greece”, as it confirms that Greece’s borders extend far beyond the mainland and that the diaspora are an integral part of the country and should therefore have the same voting rights as mainland Greeks. Conversely, the leftist Greek newspaper “I Efimerida Ton Syntakton” described it as a “letter against democracy“, arguing that national elections would be more susceptible to manipulation and fraud and it violates the privacy of the voters.

Furthermore, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) was among those who voted against the bill. Secretary General Dimitris Koutsoumpas criticised the postal voting system as “full of loopholes,” arguing that it “does not ensure the immediacy or integrity of the vote.” He cautioned, “It’s impossible to know for sure if everyone is filling out the envelope by themselves, away from any potential observers or coercion.” Koutsoumpas also noted that there were numerous complaints from both within Greece and abroad regarding envelopes that were delayed or arrived damaged, which led to some votes not being counted through no fault of the voter. The New Left likewise expressed opposition to the bill on postal voting.

Postal voting varies significantly across Europe. While some countries allow any citizen to vote by mail purely for convenience, others restrict it to specific circumstances or limit it exclusively to citizens living abroad.

In Germany, postal voting is very popular: around 18.5 million people—about 37% of the electorate—voted by mail in the 2025 federal election. Voters automatically receive a polling notification and can easily request a mail-in ballot online or by post.

In Switzerland, voting by mail is the standard. All voters are eligible, and they automatically receive their voting materials by mail weeks in advance.

In Austria and Spain, postal voting is reserved for voters who expect to be absent or are otherwise unable to cast their vote in person on election day.

In Finland, France, Italy, Sweden, Estonia, and now Greece, postal voting is only available to citizens living outside the country.