September Census Is Closed Issue for Both Government and Opposition

The start of the census on 5 September is not questioned in VMRO-DPMNE either. After Prime Minister Zaev rejected possibility of postponement on Monday, explaining that the term was set exactly after the opposition party insisted, the following day, Tuesday, VMRO-DPMNE stated for Kanal 5 that the government has a responsibility regarding the conditions for conducting the statistical operation and the health condition in which it will be conducted. The party’s Vice President, Nikoloski, says that the census needs to be guarded not only from the epidemic, but also from party influences. Whether it is possible to postpone the census again or not, the director of the Statistics Office, Simovski says can only be decided by Parliament. The institution, according to Simovski, is ready to start counting households on 5 September. For now, the explicitly opposed census by parliamentary parties is Levica, with the explanation that the operation is not possible in a time of pandemic.