Popismonitor: There are No Wrong Answers to Questions about National Identity

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Under the auspices of the civic information campaign “Popismonitor” (Census Monitor), which aims to inform the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina about the coming Population Census, the Association “Why Not” (Zašto ne) and the Unity Coalition (Koalicija Jednakost) organized a street action on September 9, 2013, in Sarajevo.

Citizens expressed great interest in issues related to the coming Population Census (Photo Popismonitor.ba)

Dalio Sijah, member of the team of the newly established popismonitor.ba website, said that all citizens may use the site to find information on the Census and, starting on October 1, 2013, report irregularities in the work of census officials and eventual abuses of proper procedures during the Census that will be conducted in the period October 1 to October 15.

While noting that the citizens are mostly interested in the provisions on wrong and false answers in the Law on Census, which prescribe fines from 100 to 10,000 BAM, Sijah explained that a correct answer implies giving full and true information to each of the census questions.

He added that there are no wrong answers to the questions on national identity, religious affiliation, or the questions on mother language.

The "Popismonitor" Campaign was launched to respond to identified lack of adequate information campaign by competent state and entity institutions that should have started implementing activities in that regard long time ago.

Sijah emphasized that the campaign will focus on civic monitoring of the Census with the goal to reduce any eventual abuses to the minimum, and intends to present the issues related to the Census from a technical, not political point of view.

The campaign plans about 30 similar street actions all over BiH before the official start of the Census on October 1. (Source: Popismonitor.ba)