Maeci
Ahead of the Constitutional Referendum vote of Dec. 4, the 195 Italian diplomatic and consular offices in the world involved in the voting procedures have completed the delivery of more than 4 million envelopes (4,044,791) containing the ballot papers, in accordance with Law No. 459/2001 (Art. 12, Para. 3).
Should Italian citizens abroad entitled to vote not receive the ballot by Nov. 20, whatever the reason, they will be able to ask the relevant Consulate for a duplicate to be sent by mail (Art. 12, Para. 5 of Law No. 459/2001). To comply with the above provision, the Embassies’ consular sections and the Consulates will remain open on the weekend of Nov. 25-27, the last before Dec. 1, the deadline (4 p.m. local time) by which the ballot papers will have to reach the relevant Consulates (Art. 12, Para. 7 of Law No. 459/2001).
The 31,462 so-called “temporary residents” abroad include the members of the Armed Forces engaged in international missions (Art. 4 bis, Para. 5 and 6 of Law No. 459/2001).
The means of delivering the ballot envelopes to the more than 5,000 troops currently engaged in missions in 19 foreign countries will vary depending on the local situation. The delivery is normally assured by public or private postal services.
In the case of the contingent deployed in the “Ippocrate” mission to protect the military hospital of Misrata (Libya), the delivery was carried out by air mail transported by military aircraft.