elections

In the last few decades, many countries have enfranchised their emigrant populations. Voting from abroad is not new, but was historically reserved for diplomats or military personnel. However, starting in the 1990s, parallel to a growth in international migration, an increasing number of countries enacted laws allowing expatriates to participate in some fashion in the electoral process. Twelve Latin American nations have enacted these rights. Colombia (1962) was the first country in Latin America, and the second in the world, after Indonesia (1953), to extend suffrage to emigrants.