The Montenegrin Prosecutor’s Office announced that it has launched an investigation after the Statistical Authority of Montenegro (Monstat) confirmed that 16 of its enumerators and an instructor were excluded from the population census campaign.
Officials said the individuals in question were suspected of using pens in the field whose ink could be erased, and some were found to have replicas other than the originals.
Following the information confirmed by Monstat, the Police Department for Crime and Corruption and the Prosecutor’s Office have asked Monstat to submit the original lists of suspected violations.
Representatives of the opposition political parties in Montenegro called for an investigation to find out whether the violations were organized. They have requested a check of the data collected by the exempted registrars, before they are entered into the final register.
The writing instruments, for the case in question, are suspected to contain ink which is easily erased at higher temperatures, leaving no trace on the erased surface.
Montenegro started the population census process on December 3 after several delays.
According to previous announcements, the population census in Montenegro was supposed to start in October, but Prime Minister Milojko Spajic offered to postpone it for some time, as the largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Socialists, demanded that all the conditions stipulated in the agreement on the population census that he had signed with the prime minister.
The population census in Montenegro, according to analysts, has become a political issue between the largest pro-Montenegro and pro-Serbian political groups. Analysts point out that the census may change the national structure of the population in Montenegro.
Even in the report of the European Commission it was emphasized that the population and housing census requires careful management by the authorities, especially when it comes to sensitive issues related to ethnicity, religion and language.
The last census was conducted in 2011 in accordance with international recommendations, in order to determine statistical data on the population, households and housing. The first census results showed that Montenegro has 625,266 inhabitants and 194,795 families.
As for national affiliation, the Montenegrin community dominated with 44.98%, followed by the Serbian community with 28.73%, Bosniaks with 8.65% and Albanians with 4.91%.