A little over 90,000 citizens were covered on the first day of the census yesterday, the State Statistics Bureau (DZS) said. The controversial census takes place in the midst of a major coronavirus wave, and also provides that all emigrants will be counted as if they were residents – in an apparent attempt to inflate the Albanian share of the population. Both these controversies have led to calls for boycott.

DZS insisted that there is no boycott in place, and that citizens are meeting with the canvassers – often outside of their homes and buildings, to minimize the threat of the virus. The Zaev regime is pushing strongly for the census to take place, as part of his apparent arrangement with his Albanian coalition partners, while the populist Levica party is calling for a boycott.