Greeks living abroad who voted in the parliamentary elections on Saturday mirrored the choice of their compatriots in Greece as far as the first two parties are concerned.
These were the first elections in which Greeks living abroad could exercise their right to vote from their place of residence, provided they met the criteria in the relevant legislation.
According to the final results provided by the Ministry of Interior, the difference between conservative New Democracy (ND) and leftist SYRIZA is 23.58%, with the two parties collecting 42.62% and 19.04% respectively.
The difference between the two largest parties is slightly larger than the vote in Greece where ND received 40.79% and SYRIZA 20.07%.
ND of PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis achieved more than 50% of the votes in 8 countries: USA, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Lithuania.
In all countries where polls took place, ND came first with the exception of Spain, Portugal and Sweden.
The biggest surprise of the vote of Greeks living abroad was Yanis Varoufakis’ MERA25 with 11.07%. In Greece, MERA 25 failed to achieve the 3% threshold to be represented in Parliament.
It was followed by the Communist Party KKE at 10.73% and socialist PASOK at 6.72%.
Election results by country
US
ND 62.21%
SYRIZA 11.56%
MERA25 6.64%
PASOK 6.23%
Canada
ND 50.34%
SYRIZA 19.31%
PASOK 9.66%
KKE 8.97%.
Australia
ND 54.40%
MERA25 15.20%
KKE 9.60%
SYRIZA received 6.40%.
South Korea
ND 32%
SYRIZA 20%
PASOK 16%
MERA25 16%.
South Africa
ND 49.09%
KKE 10.91%
PASOK 9.09%
SYRIZA 7.27%.
Saudi Arabia
ND 70%
PASOK 12.50%
SYRIZA 7.50%
MERA25 5%.
Egypt
ND 46.30%
SYRIZA 29.63%
KKE 9.26%
PASOK 5.56%.
Turkey
ND 57.89%
SYRIZA 15.79%
KKE 12.28%
PASOK 5.26%.
Italy
ND 41.64%
SYRIZA 18.77%
MERA25 14.68%
KKE 11.6%.
France
ND 37.18%
SYRIZA 22.82%
KKE 13.72%
MERA25 11.67%.
Austria
ND 39.24%
SYRIZA 18.14%
MERA25 13.92%
KKE 13.08%.
Switzerland
ND 46.91%
SYRIZA 13.40%
KKE 12.25%
MERA25 11.20%.
Czech Republic
ND 35.88%
SYRIZA 23.66%
MERA25 13.74%
KKE 8.40%.
Bulgaria
ND 51.61%
SYRIZA 20.97%
KKE 6.45%
PASOK 6.45%.
Romania
ND 56.20%
SYRIZA 15.70%
KKE 7.44%
National Creation 6.61%.
Hungary
ND 45.71%
KKE 14.29%
SYRIZA 11.43%
PASOK 11.43%.
Poland
ND 46.94%
SYRIZA 11.22%
National Creation 11.22%
MERA25 9.18%.
Lithuania
ND 51.89%
SYRIZA 20.75%
KKE 11.32%
MERA25 9.43%.
Germany
ND 36.87%
SYRIZA 19.54%
KKE 14.81%
MERA25 11.41%.
The Netherlands
ND 27.97%
SYRIZA 26.77%
MERA25 18.81%
KKE 10.42%.
Belgium
ND 46.68%
SYRIZA 19.69%
PASOK 9.41%
KKE 8.24%.
UK
ND 47.46%
SYRIZA 18%
MERA25 10.48%
KKE 10.07%.
Ireland
ND 30%
SYRIZA 24%
KKE 14.67%
MERA25 11.33%.
Norway
ND 26.92%
SYRIZA 23.08%
KKE 14.42%
MERA25 11.54%.
Finland
ND 38.36%
MERA25 17.81%
SYRIZA 15.07%
National Creation 6.85%.
Spain
SYRIZA 30.30%
ND 27.78%
MERA25 15.91%
KKE 9.09%.
Sweden
SYRIZA 26.56%
ND 24.36%
MERA25 17.77%
KKE 15.93%.
Critics point out that the Greek diaspora was mostly absent from the parliamentary elections, as only 22,816 out of millions of Greeks residing all over the world were entitled to vote.
This is seen as a fiasco for the political parties in Greece, who turned their backs on the diaspora with a new law discouraging Greeks abroad from registering by putting bureaucratic obstacles in their way.
Greek officials had previously estimated that some 300,000 citizens living outside the country wanted to have a say in the next election.