New ballot box with 100,000 postal votes
It is seen as a foregone conclusion that the government’s recent decision to introduce postal votes will boost turnout as Greeks abroad will now be able to cast their ballots without moving from their place of residence.
In the last national elections, Greeks abroad who voted numbered just 17,258.
“Our intention is that the number of Greeks who will vote in the next elections will at least triple and at most even quintuple,” a government source told Kathimerini. This means that participation in the European elections is estimated to reach abroad from 60,000 to 100,000, a number corresponding to a small city.
Ruling New Democracy is expected to most likely benefit the most.
In the last national election the overwhelming majority of the 17,258 overseas ballots went to ND (43.23%), ahead of SYRIZA (16.61%), while interestingly enough the radical leftist MeRA25 was third with 12.01%.
The biggest problem in participation in the last elections was in the US and Australia. Of those who voted abroad, 15,573 were from Europe, while only 1,124 voted in the US and a meager 123 in Australia, negligible numbers compared to the number of Greeks living there.
Conservative ND hopes this number will rise significantly on both continents so it can reap the electoral benefits. The reason has to do with the characteristics of expatriates. A professor who has dealt extensively with the diaspora told Kathimerini that Greeks living in the US and Australia have a different political identity to those living in Europe.
“They undoubtedly have more conservative elements, as they left the country earlier than the brain drain generation, and it is certain that ND will also have electoral benefits from the increase in participation,” he said.
