Macedonia's Census Officially Falls Through

Macedonia's census has been officially stopped after the Balkan country's census law was repealed by its government.

The measure comes after two national committees dealing with the census resigned, the Bulgarian National Radio informed early on Monday. The deep ethnic tensions in the country have been cited as the main reason behind the measure.

According to the last Macedonian census that took place in 2002, a total of 25% of Macedonia's citizens were ethnic Albanians. However, Albanians claim they constitute a far greater percentage of the Balkan nation's population.

The multi-ethnic Macedonian governing coalition said in a statement already on October 12 that it had decided to end the census, which began on October 1, after the commission in charge resigned saying the results would not be reliable.

The Macedonian government is also extremely sensitive when it comes to what it perceives as Macedonian Diaspora in its neighboring countries, the Bulgarian National Radio's Skopje correspondent has pointed out. Macedonian Foreign Affairs Ministry officials claim 750 000 "Macedonians" live in Bulgaria, while the official number is around 1 600.

The census in Macedonia was to be concluded on October 15, and had the goal to provide complete, transparent and quality statistics..

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