Kosova Newspapers state that 1.6 million people registered so far in Kosova – census on the final days

My cousin Peter (Peter Rip) still bachelor didn’t want to register this time. Nor did my other cousin Frrok (Frrok Kosova) couldn’t register because him and his family of six where not in Kosova. But, they all are registered in our municipality of Klina and they have Kosova’s ID cards and passports.

Like them there are others who didn’t want or couldn’t register. But this is not a problem or an issue since most are officially registered in their municipalities. The census was not and should not be compulsory. Therefore, the 1.6 million inhabitants registered for two weeks it is a very, very good start. The last census was in 1981 and results were 1.8 million inhabitants including Serbs.

Reason why Serbs in the north didn’t want to register

There are two main factors why Serbs in the north of Kosova don’t want to register. 1. Is that the Serbian claim of having 230 thousand Serbs inhabiting the territory of Kosova will result fake, and 2. The average age of Serbs living in Kosova will result 56 years old.

What this will show is that for 10-15 more years majority of Serbs will face the natural death and there will be now need for any political settlement - what so ever.  

The registration of the Serb population in the Northern Kosova will start on the 20^th of April. This time for real the world will know the real number of Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Romas and other ethnic groups living in the territory of Kosova.

Census in Kosovo extended until Tuesday

Census has been extended until Tuesday 19^th of April. Rifat Blaku, chief of the Central Census Committee, told reporters today that the process has been extended in some municipalities of Kosova. Blaku did not disclose numbers of those registered so far. Blaku decided to extend the process on the basis of national interests and citing insufficient coverage in the field. In Prishtina only 200 thousand people have registered, Kosova media state.

The representative of the Office European Commission, Kjartan Bjornson, said the extension of the census is a result of the complexity of the process and said the deadline extension was understandable given the mistakes that could have been made, despite preparations that were made since 2005. Commenting on census in the northern part of Kosovo, Bjornson said preparations have been made and there are positive moves despite political problems which exist there. “We have seen participation in Serb-inhabited areas in the southern part of the country. It is clear that there are problems in the north, because it is a complicated political environment. There are plans for a special census and we are trying to find a solution with UNOPS”.

Publication of the results of the Kosova census in June 2011

The preliminary results of census in Kosovo are expected to be published in June this year, while final results are expected to be published in May 2012. While Lumir Abdixhiku an analyst in a daily newspaper Koha Ditore writes about the importance of the population census but claims that the high hopes he had for the process disappeared when he was saw the census questionnaire which, according to him, lacks many vital parameters for a country. He says that according to European practices, citizens are not able to declare their ethnic background because the basis for their counting is their citizenship. However, this is not the case in the Kosovo census. Furthermore, the possibility to count people not present at the time of census is also a shortcoming, writes Abdixhiku as this can lead to adding or reducing the number of members in a family.