ετεροδημότης (fem: ετεροδημότισσα) = someone who lives in one municipality but who is registered to vote in another.
It’s election time. Maybe it’s because I live outside the city that the campaigns seem less febrile than usual. Besides, Sunday 21st May will likely be Round 1, so the real battles will take place from Monday 22nd onwards.
On seeing ετεροδημότης, I wondered if there were homodemotes, bi demotes, non-binary demotes or gender-fluid demotes. Nothing so exciting.
Babiniotis defines ετεροδημότης thus: πρόσωπο που δεν ανήκει στον δήμο, στον οποίο διαμένει, που είναι γραμμένος στο δημοτολόγιο άλλου δήμου, όπου και ασκεί τα εκλογικά του δικαιώματα. Apparently, there is an antonym: συνδημότης/συνδημότισσα
Being an ετεροδημότης can involve considerable inconvenience. It is not simply a matter of a bus ride to another municipality; the δήμος where he/she is registered may be at the other end of the country. I remember in the 1985 election (elections are always held on a Sunday), people were killed and injured due to the heavier than usual weekend traffic. Many of the victims were what I now know to be ετεροδημότες. Greece has made considerable improvements in e-government, but I believe registering on the electoral roll of your local municipality is still quite a task.