Population census in troubled north, due to mayors' resignations

All of this after the resignation of the mayors of these four municipalities, thus making it impossible to establish municipal commissions, which under the Law must be active six months before the census.

According to him, the law is now expected to be legislated in order to establish commissions in these four municipalities.

All of our activities, all of our preparations, have been for the census to take place for the entire territory of Kosovo, but now as we are informed in the four northern Kosovo municipalities, there was a resignation of the mayors and they wanted the new elections to be realised. Under the law, which is the set deadlines where municipal registration commissions must be established, which are six months before census”.

The “Since that at the time in other municipalities in 38 other municipalities were established municipal registration commissions, all four northern municipalities were not on commissions. We expect to hold the law because I have now been passed six months and municipal commissions in the four northern municipalities --”, he told EO.

According to him, institutional and international sensibilization is needed to conscious the citizens of the north that the census is in their best interests.

“We consider that it is challenging, but yet with stronger awareness of the support of international institutions in Kosovo that are these, we consider it to be also in the interest of the citizens themselves living in that part to participate in the census for government funds to go to the right place and their concrete needs for those residential units that live in the population because only the census shows the number of residents and the socio-economic conditions they live there and expose the needs or shortages they have. The government is directed to direct funds for these policies to the specific settlements”, he said.

Berisha said this agency is in the pre-preparation phase to announce different competitions to contract companies that will deal with both the vulnerability of citizens to register, as well as companies that will deal with other service activities.

Kosovo's Statistics Agency is currently dedicated to the country's largest national statistics project for the population registration project. Now a large number of activities have been performed, and we are in the pre-preparation phase to announce different competitions to contract companies that will deal with both sensationalisation and companies that will deal with other service activities. Campaigning has begun since last year, but the intensity of the sensationalisation campaign for the participation of the census will be with greater intensity when the population registration date will be offered to be active”, he said.

The population registration process is set to begin on September 1st of this year, which will last until October 16th.