Bishop Petar of Bitola said that the Macedonian Orthodox Church may call for a boycott of the census planned to take place this spring, unless citizens are allowed to state their religious affiliation.

We are strongly interested in having the census register the religious backgrond of the citizens, to use it to determine the number of Orthodox Christians Christians, Muslims and other faithful in Macedonia. Unless this is accepted, we may urge the people to boycott, Bishop Petar said.

The census is already facing serious criticism from the opposition parties, with VMRO-DPMNE objecting to the lack of security protocols in the census. The ruling majority rejected VMRO demand that the census teams take fingerprints of citizens and residents, to avoid having duplicate entries.