The leaders of the two largest Macedonian political parties, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski agreed on Monday to postpone the national census, while Albanian parties did not have a say in their decision. Zaev and Mickoski cited the risk posed by the pandemic as the reason for the postponement.
North Macedonia was set to conduct a national census in the period between 1-21 April, 2021 but it will be postponed until September.
Since its independence from Yugoslavia, North Macedonia has conducted only two censuses, in 1994 and 2002. The last census showed a total population of 2,022,547, of which 64.2 percent Macedonians, and 25.2 percent Albanians.
A third one has been delayed continuously in the last two decades.
Albanian parties also called a meeting on Monday, but it didn’t take place after the opposition refused to attend.
The opposition’s Alliance for Albanians said the decision taken by the two Macedonian leaders in invalid, and that the postponement requires a vote in parliament by a majority of minority parties, excluding Macedonian parties (Badinter mechanism).
“Yesterday[‘s] announcement by Z. Zaev and H. Mickoski on postponing the census is null. This cannot happen without Parliament voting a new law. We will not allow it. I call on other Albanian parties to use the Badinter mechanism to ensure the long delayed census proceeds as planned,” AA’s leader Zijadin Sela tweeted on Tuesday.
Albanian parties claim their ethnic group composes nearly one third of the population in North Macedonia. They blame the Macedonian parties, as well as Albanian parties that have been part of ruling coalitions with them, of repeated delays and postponements in the census, and attempt to manipulate the result.
Before the meeting of the two Macedonian leaders on Monday, the two largest parties in the country had opposing views on the census, preparations on which were already completed. While Zaev called on people to participate in the census, opposition’s Mickoski called for its postponement, citing fears of the coronavirus spread.
Leaders in Kosovo and Albania had called on Albanians in North Macedonia to participate in the census.
The agreement by the two Macedonian leaders is expected to pass a vote in parliament.
