The Diaspora Initiative
Diaspora voting observatory

Voting from abroad — the EU-27 and Moldova

A comparative observatory of how each member state — and Moldova — enfranchises its citizens living abroad, and how that diaspora actually votes where results are published. Countries holding an election inside the 2026–2030 monitoring window are highlighted, carrying the risk & narrative profile from the elections calendar.

How the diaspora can vote — method availability across all 28

Country Upcoming election External Embassy Other Postal Internet Proxy Elections
available limited / conditional not available in the 2026–2030 window ★ reference case (station-level data)

Scope & method. EU-27 plus Moldova (28). Each country's rules were cross-checked against a national electoral authority or OSCE/ODIHR / IFES / International IDEA. "Other" = in-person at non-diplomatic sites (community venues, ships). Where availability differs by election type (France postal/internet only for the 11 overseas legislative seats; Portugal postal for legislative but in-person for presidential; Slovakia postal for parliamentary but none for the president), the country's detail spells it out. Highlighted rows carry the risk & narrative profile from the SPINE elections calendar.

Reference cases. Romania (AEP · prezenta.roaep.ro) and Moldova (CEC · pv.cec.md) publish station-level overseas results and are the model for the RO/MD diaspora analysis. Countries with a dedicated diaspora constituency — France (11), Italy (8+4), Croatia (District XI · 3), Lithuania (World · 1), Portugal (2+2), Romania (Chamber 4/Senate 2) — give the cleanest over-time series. Disclosure tiers differ: Bulgaria (CIK) publishes per-host-country abroad votes but no abroad registration or turnout; Slovakia, Greece and Lithuania publish only one abroad aggregate; Estonia, Finland and Sweden fold abroad ballots into the voter's home district, so only participation is knowable.