The Mayor of the Municipality of Gostivar, Arben Taravari, at the panel discussion of CIVIL “Census: Statistics, not politics”, referred to using the opportunity to have a census of the population, because we need accurate numbers.
-I will start first as a citizen, the state must have and it is good to have a census because since 2002 there was no other census, although they started in 2011 but the reasons on why that process was stopped are not clear. As a mayor, it is very important for me to conduct the census because we have schools, kindergartens, roads and other things that are planned to be implemented, but we have to count how many we are to know how to plan further more kindergartens, schools. We need to see how many citizens there are in the villages and plan where those children will study,” Taravari said.
-It will cost less to send children 5-6 km to another school than to pay teachers for very few children. One teacher cannot teach mathematics in 4th, 5th and 6th grade. As mayor, I insist that the local communities be engaged in the census. The census is not politics but mathematics. It is good to know how big we are so we can plan things. As the secretary for the alliance, we had remarks because it was adopted very quickly, without it being public and discussed. The law on the census should be adopted 6 months before the census is held and here in mid-January 3 months before the implementation. We need math with exact numbers. We demanded that, together with the law, it be in parliament and that the methodology won’t have any confusion that someone is playing some kind of a game in this mathematical operation. It would be much better to pass the law by absolute consensus. It is important that the mathematical operation brings accurate numbers so that health education, etc. can be planned.
– As a municipality, we inform the institutions when we hear that some of the non-residents have problems with the census. The figures I received this morning are disappointing, people living temporarily abroad have no motive for the census. As a municipal organization, we have already said that we are here and we are cooperating with the SSO and we stand to be full support for everything we need until the end of the census. I use the opportunity to call the citizens with us and those who are outside to use the opportunity to register. I am very optimistic that this is the last census that will be taken out physically in the country. Abroad, when they need a census, they send applications every 6 months and the population is enumerated online. What will the small parties that want to boycott the census achieve? What will they achieve with that? I urge them to think hard, especially about their children,” Taravari said.
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