The country needs a census, but it should be a statistical, not a political operation as prepared by the government, said the leader of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE Hristijan Mickoski on Wednesday’s press conference.
Mickoski informed that the party at the session of the Executive Committee held the day before had reached a conclusion to initiate the withdrawal of the draft law on census from the parliamentary procedure and to reach a consensual solution through a wider debate on how to conduct the census in the country.
If the ruling majority intents to ignore this, the bill and the will of the citizens, VMRO-DPMNE will not recognize the results of the census and any future heads of institutions nominated by VMRO-DPMNE will not respect the results. We call for common sense, statehood-like conduct and consensus before the ruling majority decides to make any move, he stressed. This country, Mickoski added, needs a census that will provide answers to statistical dilemmas, it doesn’t need a political operation.
According to him, claims that money will be spent for fingerprint scanners in vain is nonsense. In line with the changes to the Electoral Code, Mickoski said, voters in this year’s local elections will cast their votes using fingerprint scanners. The same devices can be used for this statistical operation, he claimed.
He criticized the ruling parties of using a procedure meant to adopt laws that are necessary to align Macedonia’s laws to those of the European Union countries to fast-track the law and give a political, instead of a statistical meaning of the census. Mickoski said many developed countries have postponed administering census, including Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Romania, and Serbia.
