Koutsoubas supports voting rights for Greeks abroad at meeting with PM

Greek citizens who work, live and study abroad "must definitely be guaranteed the right to vote," Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary General Dimitris Koutsoubas said on Friday, after meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The PM met with all parliamentary party leaders on Friday to discuss the issue of voting rights for Greeks abroad.

Koutsoubas said that voting should be extended to Greek citizens abroad who retained property or family in Greece, paid taxes here, "and have a reason to vote here and express their position on elected political leadership, on laws that harm them and on income issues."

Voting should not be extended to people of Greek descent who have been absent from Greece for too long, Koutsoubas said. "We believe the time Greeks have lived away from Greece should make sense, they can't have left 100 years ago and have 'blood rights' four generations down," he pointed out. He also said he opposed voting in absentia (e.g. by a mail-in ballot), but that Greek embassies and consulates abroad should help by providing facilities for voting.

He added that the Communist Party's stance would depend on the manner the related bill is introduced to the Greek Parliament and on how it regulates the issues raised during the meeting with the premier.