Zvizdić and Osmanović: 120,000 people cannot be unknown, they have their nation, religion, and language

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH Denis Zvizdić and Minister of Civil Affairs Adil Osmanović, who is the coordinator of the Council of Ministers in the Central Census Bureau, on the eve of tomorrow's session of the CCB, pointed out today at a press conference the urgency of adopting a unified methodology for data processing regarding the Census of Population conducted back in 2013, reports the news agency Patria.

Zvizdić first highlighted the BiH Agency for Statistics as the most responsible for finally adopting a unified methodology so that we can obtain final results. He emphasized that it is necessary to respect the recommendations of the International Monitoring Team, which state that questions 1 to 7 are sufficient to determine a resident, and that question 40 should not be part of these variables.

- When we talk about the latest proposal from the CCB session, which states that more than 120,000 enumerated persons will be residents, but their nationality, religion, and language will be deleted, and they will be classified as unknown, it is contrary to both the Entity Constitution and the BiH Constitution, and all human rights conventions - said Zvizdić, noting that the politicization of the census should stop as soon as possible because it is a matter of numbers, not politics.

Minister Osmanović said that tomorrow, as the coordinator of the Council of Ministers, he will immediately express the Council of Ministers' great concern at the CCB session and expects full responsibility and professionalism to finally conclude this matter.

It was noted at this press conference that BiH cannot access the questionnaire, which is to be prepared after BiH submits its EU application, without the census results, and that no macroeconomic analyses and projects can be made.

Also, all participants in this process were asked to make a step forward, as was done regarding the acceptance of these 120,000 "disputed census forms" as residents.

Osmanović and Zvizdić see nothing wrong with these people having their religion, nationality, and language known.

Why Jukić went to Eurostat

When asked by journalists whether it is known why Velimir Jukić, director of the BiH Agency for Statistics, is in Eurostat today and whether this is true, Zvizdić and Osmanović said they do not know, nor the reason for his visit there.