GOOD NEWS - Greek Gov't Working On New Diaspora Vote Law

Greeks in NY (credit: Wikipedia)

While addressing the Special Committee on Greeks Abroad at the Greek parliament on Thursday, Minister of Interior Evripides Stylianides noted the importance of FINALLY granting voting rights to Greek Diaspora. The Minister explained that he believes the bickering between political parties will be set aside to find a solution, although all previous efforts to find a compromise had failed.

According to Stylianides, the Ministry has already assigned a working group to process a draft law mainly focusing on the right of Greeks living abroad to vote, equality in voting rights, reliability of the procedure, administrative preparedness and a low cost for the project. Once the draft law is ready, it will be ready for public debate in order for the parties to make their amendments before it heads to Parliament.

The Minister also underlined that the Diaspora constitutes an important Hellenic presence outside the country’s borders, which makes it imperative to pass the right to vote. Referring to articles of the Greek Constitution and a decision against Greece issued by the European Court of Human Rights, Stylianides said that only Greece and Ireland refuse their Disapora the right to vote.

Editor's Note - WE ARE VERY, VERY PLEASED with this development. We cannot begin to describe our relief and we really hope that the government does not let us down for yet another time. For the past 10 years the Editor of HellasFrappe has rallied and worked very hard so that Greeks in the Diaspora can finally be granted voting rights. For this she connected with Greek organizations -of a global nature- but to no avail. She aligned herself and worked for a magazine dedicated to the Diaspora, but again, to no avail. She even spoke in political groups and complained to State officials, but no one would listen to her. And now her position on this issue is finally being vindicated and the feeling of justification cannot be placed into words. The mere fact that the Greek government -as Costa Karamanlis' gov't did as well- recognized the importance of the Greek Diaspora, is VERY significant. The news is indeed very positive, and very encouraging. Now that the Greek government has paved the road, and is finally going to grant us the one right we are entitled to because of our origin, it is time for us to also begin discussing and rallying for a better leadership within the ranks of our Diaspora organizations -who until now have been inactive on anything that is Greek related-. We believe their work is complete. In our opinion it has not been as effective as we would of wanted it to, and we also believe that it is time for all these people to step down and allow young, bright minds to step forward that will take our Diaspora into the next generation with only Hellas on their mind.