Census postponed

TIRANA, March 1 – Albania has postponed its census, which was due in April, due to the local elections on May 9, according to Information Technology Minister Genc Pollo.
But in practice that followed a loud shout from personalities and other organizations against including the self-statement of the ethnicity and religion in the application.
Religious communities, historians and civil society expressed themselves against the census form which has more than 100 questions.
Meanwhile dozens of intellectuals sent a petition to the highest state institutions Monday opposing a census based on ethnic and religious grounds. A total of 52 signatures, including those of two former presidents, were added to the document, which stated that such a census interferes with basic human rights, national interests and the constitution.
The constitution guarantees minorities the right to their ethnic, cultural, religious beliefs and language, but does not require them to state them. The intellectuals argue that such elements are not included in any of the 27 EU member states censuses.
The census has been postponed until October or November with Pollo citing May 8 local elections as reason for the decision.
Registration of the population during the local government elections could lead to inaccurate data.
The population census project, worth 15 million euros and partly funded from the EU, has been rejected by representatives of religious communities, historians and civil society organizations.
Albania organized its last census on population and living conditions on 2001.
Due to the strong emigration, population displacement within the country and tens of thousands illegal homes constructed since the collapse of communism a new one is required and authorities had planned to do it at the same time as all Europe around.
But many local personalities said that under political pressure from Greece, the government accepted to add questions on religious adherence and ethnicity in 2011 census, which dismayed a part of the public opinion that are afraid that data collected on ethnicity based on self-declaration will fuel Greek nationalist territorial claims.
During the last few weeks several protest against the census on ethnicity were organized. A new one is planned to be held this Saturday.
Greek minority organizations claim that the number of ethnic Greeks in the country was diluted over time by political and social pressure and that the right of self-declaration of ethnicity could resolve such historical problems.
Albanians claims that Greek Government uses its economic muscles to lure Albanians in changing their identity for Athens nationalist claims on Northern Epirus, a region that lies also in South Albania.
The census is expected to produce more reliable data on the size of the population in the country and the labor force, which is impossible to be calculated based on civic registers because of massive emigration.