Macedonia's Government at a session on Friday completed the formation of the State Census Commission (SCC) after accepting resignations submitted by now former members of the Commission: Abdulmenaf Bexheti, Vesna Janevska, Marija Taseva, Vanco Angelovski and Fauzi Skenderi.

The Government appointed Bujar Osmani, Lazar Trajcev, Zivko Pejkovski, Orce Todorovski and Artan Grubi as new SCC members. Slobodanka Gievska is the new SCC president, while Bujar Osmani will serve as its vice-president.

Vesna Janevska, the former SCC president, resigned from her post this afternoon, because "the forthcoming census is to be subjected to falsification."

"Today around 2:00 p.m. I submitted an irrevocable resignation to the Government of Macedonia simply because I deem and believe that in the Republic of Macedonia another census falsification is planned according to my current findings. My colleagues from the State Census Commission with Albanian and Turkish origin have left no space for trust that this census is to be held in an appropriate fashion. We disagreed on essential issues, such as the use of a copy of an ID or passport during the population count, which is absolutely against the law and EUROSTAT methodology," Janevska told a press conference on Friday.

The other issue that caused disputes is whether or not to count citizens or nationals of the Republic of Macedonia that have been outside the country for over 12 months.

On Friday, State Statistical Office (SSO) director Blagica Novkovska speaking to the media said all was set for the census to start.

"If I have decided to send everyone on the field with my signature, then I believe we are ready to launch the Census. In this regard, no implications should emerge", said Novkovska when asked about the latest problems related to the Census.

The SSO director stressed materials for all national instructors are distributed today.

"They were on the field in past couple of days, and this afternoon they will be in their census regions. Census materials should be distributed to the census takers by the end of the day. Census 2011 begins at 8 a.m. tomorrow", said Novkovska.

Pertaining to the Census administering, she said the SSO would act in line with the Law on Census.

"The law is very precise regarding the individuals who will and won't be registered. This is well-defined in line with the recommendations", added Novkovska.

SSO director Novkovska and a representative of the Eurostat monitoring mission wil hold the first press conference over the Census on Saturday.

Census to be held on October 1-15, says NCC chair

National Census Commission (NCC) chair Vesna Janevska told MIA on Thursday that the Census of population, households and apartments will start on time, 1 October at 08,00h.

"The Census will start on Saturday in line with the Law on Census. Training is ongoing, people are being prepared, and there is no dilemma that the Census will be held. Lots of effort is invested, we experienced many difficulties on the road, but I believe everything will be as it should on Saturday", said Janevska.

With regards to different interpretations of the Law on Census and the requirements of census taking for nationals living abroad but entering the country once in the course of a year, Janevska said the Census would be administrated in line with the law.

"There are different opinions. However, census takers and all other participants in the process will work according to the law", said the NCC chair.

The Census of population, households and apartments in Macedonia is to be completed on October 15.