Burjani: It will be difficult to conduct the population census in Kosovo; the question is whether it will be valid

Whether Albanians from Kosovo will identify themselves as Kosovars or Albanians on the population census scheduled for April this year is a matter of personal choice for each citizen, but it will be very difficult for the census to be carried out and validated, according to an analyst from Pristina, Blerim Burjani.

"Citizens have the right to decide which field to fill out on the form, they will choose and express their national affiliation in the population census. Citizenship is a legal element, while national affiliation is the citizens' feeling, so it will be both, as it has been in previous years," Burjani says.

He assesses that it will be difficult to conduct the population census due to the fact that most villagers work in a larger city, but also because of population emigration.

"We don't have much data yet on what the population census form will look like or how they have constructed the form with questions. I think there are no good grounds to implement the regulation, it will be difficult because we have many people who travel constantly within Kosovo during the day, who work in cities but have their residence in the village. There are many such cases. Then we also have emigration," Burjani explains.

He believes that it would be good to postpone the census to avoid it ending up being worthless.

"I think it's better for now to postpone the census. After all, the number of citizens is known. Municipalities have registers with documents or property registers. Of course, we need a population and property census, but whether the results will be valid in the end, we don't know," Burjani says.