Deralla: Statistics are like electricity

There were many obstructions and attempts to block the census, primarily from political and nationalist narratives. Even one MP in a television appearance said that citizens are kicking out enumerators, which was an open call for violence, said Xhabir Deralla from CIVIL at the marking of the official start of the project “Increasing the use and availability of official statistical data in the Republic of North Macedonia”, which the State Statistical Office is working on with Sweden Statistics.

“We as journalists and activists opposed the fake news and disinformation that were related to the census. We organized panel discussions, published texts, timely informed the citizens and exposed disinformation in order for the citizens to be well informed”, said Deralla.

camera: Dehran Muratov
editing: Arian Mehmeti

translation: N. Cvetkovska