Prime Minister Zoran Zaev sent out a video message to the Macedonian diaspora to register in the online census which is being conducted. Ethnic Macedonians living abroad, many of whom loathe Zaev for the concessions he is making to Greece, Bulgaria and the Albanian cause, are largely boycotting the online registration of citizens, while ethnic Albanians are reporting in massive numbers, after being urged to do so by Albanian politicians in Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania.

More than 82,000 of our citizens from the diaspora used the opportunity to self-register which helps create better policies for a better future of our fatherland. I urge all of the diaspora, from all parts of the world, to join this patriotic act so we can have a clearer picture about our people abroad. All Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks and others, regardless of ethnicity, all who have a Macedonian citizenship, register!, Zaev said in a plea to the diaspora.

Macedonia already has up to date registries of citizens that cover the diaspora. What is needed is a registry of actual residents – that is best conducted with an in-person census across Macedonia. But Albanian parties insisted that the diaspora is also counted, fearing that otherwise their share of the population would drop below the 25 percent registered in 2002, or even below 20 percent. Zaev, whose Government depends on the support of the Albanian parties, agreed to their terms, but ethnic Macedonian organizations from Australia, North America and Western Europe are largely ignoring the census, just as they have tuned out of the recent elections.

The most difficult phase of Zaev’s census operation begins in April, when teams are supposed to be sent across the country for in-person meetings with each individual household. Polls show that citizens are scared of allowing census takers in their homes after they have done the rounds of the entire neighborhood, and the Statistics Bureau is also having difficulty recruiting enough people for the census. Macedonia is in the midst of a major Third Wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with the infection and mortality rate approaching the exceptionally bad levels seen during the early fall.