English
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski proposed that an electronic census takes place next year, and that it should be a decision that will be adopted along with the decision to change the electoral law and introduce a single electoral district. The 2021 census was much criticized because it took place during a Covid wave, and included citizens living in the diaspora – ethnic Macedonians in the diaspora broadly boycotted the Zaev regime and its census, as did over 100,000 ethnic Macedonians in the country and the end results were badly skewed.
Albanian representatives, such as Halil Snopce, today asked in the Parliament tha the results are skewed even further and that the distinction between citizens who live in the country and those living abroad is removed. This would increase the percentage of Albanians as share of the total resident population, given their large diaspora which did not boycott the census.
Prime Minister Mickoski told Snopce that the diaspora citizens were not registed under a local address and therefore have to be counted separate from the actual residents.
I have always considered the diaspora an inseparable part of our population, and so I urge you that you approve the changes of the electoral code, the introduction of a single electoral district, which will allow the diaspora to vote.
To clear up the issues with the 2021 census, Mickoski said that he wants to hold an electronic census in 2026. This would include matching of the databases of the various state institutions, such as the healthcare system, the tax authority and the Interior Ministry, which, the Prime Ministe said, will produce accurate results for 90 percent of the data that is collected in the regular census.
