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SITAROPOULOS AND GIAKOUMOPOULOS v. GREECE JUDGMENT
1. Arrangements for voting from abroad in the countries which
authorise it in principle
33. Thirty-seven member States fall into this category: Austria, Belgium,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy,
Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Republic of Moldova,
Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, “the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Turkey, Ukraine and the United
Kingdom.
34. The above-mentioned countries provide either for voting in polling
stations abroad or postal voting, or both. The following seventeen countries
allow voting in embassies or consulates or in polling stations set up
elsewhere: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland,
France, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, the Republic of Moldova, Norway,
Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, “the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia” and Ukraine.
Eight countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia) allow their citizens living abroad to
vote by post only, either through an embassy or consulate or by writing
directly to the competent national authority. The possibility of voting either
at an embassy (or consulate) or by post is provided for in Belgium, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
A handful of countries – Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and
the United Kingdom – also allow voting by proxy. In Monaco, proxy voting
is the sole means by which nationals of that country can vote from abroad.
A few States (the Netherlands and Switzerland) allow Internet voting.
This type of voting is already enshrined in law and in operation in Estonia,
while it is under consideration in Spain.
35. In five member States (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Hungary,
Liechtenstein and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”), only
persons temporarily resident outside the country have the right to vote from
abroad. In the last-mentioned country, the law refers explicitly to persons
living and working abroad temporarily. In some countries, expatriates lose
the right to vote after a certain period of time (fifteen years in the United
Kingdom and twenty-five years in Germany).
36. Certain countries such as Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Ukraine
allow external voting only with the permission of the host country.
37. In four countries – Croatia, France, Italy and Portugal – expatriates
may elect their own representatives to the national parliament in
constituencies set up outside the country. In Portugal, each of the two
constituencies elects a member of parliament. French citizens living abroad
participate in the election of twelve members of the Senate via the
150-strong Assembly of French Expatriates. From 2012, they will also be