The party staffs analyze the anthropogeography of voters abroad and in the Greek territory in search of electoral gains
New electoral data is formed by the pool of postal votes in Euro referendum of June 9, 2024. Of political interest is the geographical origin – and the party origin, which cannot be weighed in advance – of the 202,556 Greek voters in total inside and outside the territory who have registered on the special platform.
It hides pitfalls for the parties but also hopes for strengthening electoral performance. However, the actual number is somewhat lower (202,515 voters) as some of those registered will not be able to exercise their right to vote by sending the ballot of the combination they want and their preferred MEP candidates by post. In addition, there are differences in the distribution resulting from the declaration of a different election address than that of receipt of the file.
In some countries – it’s not hard to bet which ones – the special voting envelopes won’t arrive. The Mitsotakis government cites technical reasons (inability to send documents, conditions of war, etc.) but, it seems, there are also political – diplomatic reasons. In a document-decision (Ministry of Internal Affairs, no. prot. 23921, April 30/May 1, 2024) co-signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis, the Minister of the Interior Niki Kerameos and the Deputy Minister of the Interior Theodoris Livanios, it is specified that special voting envelopes will not be sent to following countries: Ukraine, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Republic of Cuba, Republic of Belarus, Russian Federation and in the smaller outer islands of the United States. In fact, the government of ND projects that on April 24, 2024, both companies that have taken over the postal electoral services for postal voting sent the authorities an electronic message about the countries to which they cannot send special voting envelopes.
In the final stretch for the Euro-election
The party staffs, flanked by political analysts and statisticians, are redistributing their organizational forces to approach voters by region in Greece and abroad who may strengthen them electorally. In fact, it is a crucial parameter whether the internal voters had voted in the previous elections or not. At the same time, it is possible that these are workers who work seasonally on the islands and in other tourist places, while there is a potential that “tests” the new possibility.
Analyzing the data of the Ministry of the Interior resulting from the distribution of voters by postal ballot sorting electoral division (document no. prot. 39143, April 30, 2024), of the total of 202,556 registered voters, 75.7% concern voters within Greece. These are 153,322 internal voters, the majority of whom come from the B3 district of Athens (Southern Sector) and the B1 Athens district (Northern Sector), followed by the 1st Athens and the 1st Thessaloniki, the 1st Piraeus, the Eastern Attica, Aitoloakarnania, B2 Athens (Western Sector), Heraklion of Crete, Messinia, Achaia, Ioannina, Larissa, Serres, Evros, etc.
The remaining 24.3% are voters who live abroad or will be outside Greece on the day of the European elections (49,234 foreign voters). It is noteworthy that in the national elections of June 2023, 22,764 were registered in the special foreign lists (of which 15,671 voted). Thus, a significant increase is observed, as the number of Greek voters abroad has more than doubled compared to the last parliamentary elections. Of course, let’s not forget that based on current legislation, non-residents exercise their right to vote in the June 9 European elections exclusively through postal voting.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the registrations of Greeks from abroad have been made from 128 different countries, in most of which there was no polling station in the last elections. Most Greek voters abroad come from Germany (9,578 registered), the United Kingdom (9,090), the USA (3,857), Belgium (3,491), the Netherlands (3,119) and Cyprus (2,808). Also 1,145 voters are from Canada, 1,189 from Albania, 913 voters from Asia, 835 from Oceania, 758 from Denmark and the Faroe Islands.
The hunt for the vote of the emigrants
The electoral battle for the foreign vote is not only not underestimated by the parties, but instead they seek to perform as well as possible. In fact, for some parties it can be of decisive importance, especially if they are on the verge of entering the European Parliament.
In the national elections of June 2023, the ND took first place in the foreign ballot box with 43.23% (7,460 votes) and correspondingly in the elections of May 2023 42.62% (7,686 votes), while the second in votes was SYRIZA – PS with 16.61% (2,866 votes) and respectively in the May elections 19.07% (3,434 votes). It is interesting that the third place in the foreign ballot box in June 2023 was taken by MeRA25 with the “airplane” percentage of 12.01% with 2,072 votes (in May 2023 it received 11.07% and 1,996 votes), when at the territory level he had received 2.5% (130,378) and was left out of Parliament (ranked ninth). The KKE in the electoral process of June 2023 had a nationwide percentage of 7.69% (401,224 votes) and in the foreign ballot it took fourth place with 11.92% (2,057 votes), leaving PASOK in fifth place (6.91% and 1,192 votes) while at the territory level it had collected 11.84%.
The long journey of the postal vote
Electoral materials must have been sent to voters by the Ministry of the Interior no later than 24 May 2024, i.e. 15 days before the election. This includes a postal vote return envelope, ballot paper, voting envelope, instruction form, list of candidates, application-responsible statement. The voting envelopes are completely anonymized and have a special mark of authenticity, the Ministry of the Interior points out.
The postal voting ballot is uniform and printed under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior. The first page shows all the parties, combinations and coalitions of parties that are candidates and the voter puts a cross on the one they choose. On this page there is also the distinct option “I choose none of the above – I vote white”. The second page shows a table with numbers from 1 to 42. The voter chooses from none (0) to four MEP candidates of the party or combination of his preference by marking the number corresponding to each candidate of his choice as it appears on the list of candidates. In the event that the voter makes a wrong choice or the ballot is damaged, the voter has the option to print a single new ballot from the Ministry of Interior page, fill it out again and put it in the voting envelope, which is placed in the envelope return sent to the pre-filled address of the postal vote sorting center in Greece.
The voter is informed by mobile phone message and email, if he has declared it, about the receipt of his file from the Electoral Departments for the Sorting of Postal Ballots in Greece. The envelope must be received by 5 pm Greek time on the eve of the election (June 8, 2024) in order to be counted in the voting result, otherwise it is returned, unopened, to the sender. The counting of postal votes takes place at the same time as all the other votes on the Sunday afternoon of the election.
It is planned to establish 237 electoral divisions for the sorting of postal ballots, which are numbered from 1 to 237 and voters are distributed among them as follows:
• Voters who will receive the special voting envelope outside the territory are placed in a polling station per receiving country or countries.
• Voters who will receive the special voting envelope within the territory, are placed in a polling station based on the electoral district of the basic electoral list.
Risks to the secrecy of the vote
For a long time, the opposition parties, mainly the KKE but also SYRIZA and PASOK, have abandoned the ND government for its study of bringing the postal vote and consider that issues may arise regarding the integrity of the electoral process. At the same time, there are objections to postal voting that alienates from the electoral process and degrades participation.
However, the criticisms have intensified, since almost a month before the European elections, no answers have been given regarding the leakage of personal data of foreign voters (the Asimakopoulos case) by the Ministry of the Interior, and in the meantime, the office of the Directorate of Elections was broken into. The ND even brought an amendment drastically reducing the fines for failing to verify the voter’s identity when receiving the envelope for a postal vote, which courier companies saw as an obstacle to providing their services.
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