Pursuant to law (no. 459/2001, issued to implement art. 48 of the Constitution) the right to vote for Italian citizens living abroad is reserved to those enrolled in the AIRE. In addition to these persons, and on the basis of legislative decree (DL) no. 223/2012, which is valid only for the upcoming 2013 elections, several other categories of voters temporarily living abroad for reasons of service (armed forces and police deployed in international missions; employees of central State, Regional or Autonomous Provincial government institutions temporarily posted abroad; contract university professors or researchers also temporarily living abroad for service purposes).
Extension of the right to use an absentee ballot to voters living abroad for a period of less than 12 months, and therefore legally excluded from AIRE enrolment (such as NGO staff and university students, for example), would require modification of the mechanisms provided by current legislation. Therefore, as in the case of persons in Italy who move for several months to a location other than their legally registered place of residence, voters temporarily living abroad and that do not fulfill the requirements for the categories covered by the above-mentioned DL 223/2012 may vote only in the municipality where they are registered to vote in Italy.
