We'll go to the census when the army returns to Kosovo”, the campaign for boycotting Montenegro's population census begins

I'm boycotting the fake record ) so there is”, “Recording will be when the army returns to Kosovo”, “We are not home, come next year” this is part of the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS)'s message, which urges citizens of Montenegro not to participate in the population census.

The boycott campaign by Milo Djukanovic until recently began after their demands for postponement and control of the process were rejected, writes Radio Free Europe (RSE).

The census was scheduled for 1 November by Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic's government, despite calls from the opposition, the European Parliament, the nongovernmental sector and national minority councils for its postponement.

Abazovic rejected calls for postponement, addressing this possibility to the new government that is in the process of forming, mandated by Milojko Spajq.

The session in which the Spajici government has yet to be resolved has not been scheduled.

The pro-Serbian parliamentary majority, which will support the election of the new government, opposes delaying the census, primarily the former pro-Russian Democratic Front, Democrats and the Socialist People's Party.

Despite that and not known when the prime minister will be elected, Prime Minister Milojko Spajzic announced that his government, along with the parliamentary majority, would propose delaying the census for a month.

“to create the conditions for this activity to gain absolute legitimacy by accepting the core demands of the Council of the less numerous peoples and the opposition”, Spajic said on October 24th.

Even such a brief delay is unacceptable to DPS, while unofficially taught, is acceptable to parties of the future government.

The new government of the mandate has not formed even four and a half months after the June parliamentary elections and the deadline for the completion of this process expires on November 8th.

The question is whether it will be formed before the census starts. Unofficially, October 31st -- the day before the census began -- is cited as the date of the parliamentary session with that point of the agenda.

In addition to the DPS, the boycott is supported by all pro-Montenegrin parties, the Social Democrats, the Liberal Party, the Social Democrat Party and the citizens' associations identified as Montenegrins.

They believe it is ethnic engineering designed to increase the number of Serbs in Montenegro, and that they disagree that the “data already prepared to be transferred to letter”.

The implementation of the census is the responsibility of local authorities.

Five municipalities where the pro-Montenegro parties are in power announced there are no conditions to keep the census. In these municipalities, Tivar, Cetinje, Plav, Shavnik and Bijelo Polje live about 120,000 citizens - one fifth of Montenegro's total population.

The census is valid and serves its purpose only if all participate and if some citizens boycott it, it is meaningless, Demography Miroslav Doderovic tells Radio Free Europe.

So a census without boycott. If some of the citizens boycott the census, it's problematic, and let alone if some municipalities decide to do so, plus some citizens in the 19 remaining municipalities will boycott it”.

In the last elections, in June of this year, about 80 thousand voters -- or more than one quarter of all voters -- voted for parties calling for a boycott.

For minority parties, 34 thousand citizens whose national councils called for their postponement, even though they have not yet decided to support the boycott.

boycott campaign is dominant in networks, and partly in the field

With hashtags #boycott, #NeLjubimLance, #NijesmoDoma, as well as similar slogans, boycott campaign conducted dominantly on social networks.

It's becoming a printout “we're not home, come next year”, and it's been warned to set up tables.

Also in the past two weeks, several groups of citizens have protested, demanding postponement.

At the last rally before MONSTAT, the institution responsible for conducting the census, they held banners: “Montenegro woke up”, “you received fines”, “Dritan, you're cheating”, “Who's going to count boycotting” ”

Messages from Serbia further raised tensions

Citizens who object to the census fear that counterfeiting data would undermine the civic concept of society.

“We saw how urgent and important it is for them in the powerful campaign led by the Serbian highway and in the billboards. Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq”, civil activist Svetlana Pajović said Music at the last gathering.

However, it alluded to the messages of the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Porfir, who during his visit to Podgorica, called on citizens to identify themselves as Serbs, as well as Vuciqi's statement that calls for delaying the census in Montenegro opposed. Serbs:

“The registration time has come, but don't give it up for more Serbs”. What do you really want from the outside? To stop Serbs from declaring themselves Serbs, to wipe out the name and surname of Serbs, to prevent Serbs from saying they are Serbs? You won't see it that day”

On the same day, Montenegro's president Jakov Milatovic, who has rejected the comments coming from the United States, the European Union and Serbia, praising them as inappropriate.

Specifically, with the European Parliament resolution, Montenegro has been invited to postpone the census until the country's political stalemate ends. / REL