Postal vote: Platform registration deadline ends tomorrow – How many applied

From the 3,000 to 4,000 daily registrations in the previous period, in the last week this number rose and many times exceeded 10,000 registrations per day.

According to official data, by Saturday (27/4) afternoon, more than 157,000 Greek citizens had registered on the relevant electronic platform in order to vote by mail in the European elections of June 9. Of these, approximately 116,000 live in Greece, while nearly 41,100 are residents of 115 countries. The number of registered expatriate voters is significantly higher than in the 2023 general election, for which nearly 23,000 were registered to vote in person, with around 18,000 going to the polls in May and 15,600 in June.

Eight out of 10 emigrants are residents of European countries (34,580 – 84.1%), approximately 4,290 are registered from North and Central America (10.4%), 870 from Asian countries (2.1%), 400 from Africa (1%), 215 from South American countries (0.5%) and 745 from Oceania (1.8%).

By country, the most registrations come from residents of Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Belgium and the Netherlands. In the June elections, expatriates living in countries where polling stations were not set up in last year’s parliamentary elections will also be able to vote, as the required number was not filled. These include Angola, Botswana, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Djibouti, Barbados, Ghana, El Salvador, Cote d’Ivoire etc.

The same data also show that the interest in the new, for Greek data, voting method is high among all age groups. Voters aged 17 to 30 and 31 to 40 correspond to 31.8% of registered voters. Citizens from 41 to 50 and from 51 to 60 correspond to 38.2%, while those over 61 correspond to 30.1%.

The process and next steps

Registrations are made through the application epistoliki.ypes.gov.gr, which is accessible through gov.gr and the websites of the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs.

In order not to be surprised, foreign residents should take into account the time difference between their place of residence and their country of origin. For example, those living in Los Angeles and Vancouver the deadline ends one minute before 2:00 p.m. local time, in New York and Toronto at 5:00 p.m., in Britain at 10:00 p.m., in central Europe (France, Germany, Austria, Spain etc) at 23:00, in Beijing at 05:00 on Tuesday and two hours later in Australia.

Voters within Greece enter the platform exclusively through taxisnet using their personal codes. Greeks who live abroad and do not have taxisnet codes, it is possible to complete the certification with the combined use of data from the Greek passport and the Greek police identity card (as long as both are valid) or the passport and the tax registration number.

The electoral file will be sent by the Ministry of Interior via courier in May. The receipt must be done either by the voter himself or by a third party who is expressly authorized to receive it, with a genuine signature visa via gov.gr or by a public authority.

The voter is informed by e-mail about the sending of the file and with an e-link to follow its progress (tracking).

The file will include the postal vote return file, the ballot paper that will be uniform with all parties, the voting file that will be anonymous, an instruction form, the list of candidates and an application – responsible declaration that must be completed.