Two days before the census, the Government and the opposition again have different views on the possibility of the census starting on Thursday.
After a new meeting in the government, Prime Minister Milojko Spjaič claims that all the conditions of the opposition have been met and that there are no obstacles.
According to information from TV Vijesti, the opposition is asking for the census to be postponed for a few days, because, as they claim, not all of their conditions have been met - a sufficient number of enumerators and technical documentation for the software.
In the Directorate for Statistics - Monstat, however, they claim that the conditions for this have been achieved, with the amendments to the Law on the Census, and the lack of enumerators can be compensated for by the provision that the census will be extended by 15 days
"If the number of enumerators is reduced to two thousand, we need twice as long to carry out the survey, which also means that if we remain with two thousand enumerators, we finish the work with an extension of 15 days, which has already been announced," said Snežana Remiković from the Directorate for Statistics.
And while methodologist Vuk Čađenović says that December is not a good month to hold the census, Monstat points out that the delay is even worse.
"Extending the flow by 15 days in December would mean that, in the best case, we will conduct the census until December 30, that is, until New Year's Eve, when migrations are intensified," said Čađenović.
Remiković agreed that the risk of December exists.
"But here I can say - a lesser evil is chosen. We are already far behind other countries and we are greatly losing international comparability".
Remiković also spoke about certain doubts of citizens in the run-up to the census in Colors of the Morning on Vijesti television.
"Usually they ask - I am registered and I have a residential address in the MUP register in Budva and I live in Podgorica, do I have to go to Budva to register? No, you don't have to go to Budva. The register is different from the registers in that respect. which exists. We list people where they really live".
And the enumerators, he says, are ready to go to the field on Thursday at eight o'clock.
"Enumerators are invited to enumerate only one, up to two households on the first day. After that, there is work control. This control is the most important, essentially, for the reason that if the enumerator makes a mistake, it is better to find that mistake right at the beginning, so as not to make it in 20 households. After that first control, the enumerators are again invited to enumerate only three to five households and the control is carried out again. In fact, the enumeration starts en masse on the third day," explained Remiković.
In the meantime, the Assembly formed a committee to monitor the implementation of the Agreement on the Census, which consists of seven members each from the government and the opposition, and the President of the State announced the amendments to the Law on the Census voted yesterday.
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