Members of the Civic Movement “Moldova’s Young People” said the population and homes census taken in 2014 represents a failure because the National Bureau of Statistics committed multiple violations when preparing and taking the census and when gathering together the data. They stated that hundreds of thousands of people weren’t visited by census takers, being thus deprived of the right to take part in the census.
In a news conference at IPN on January 13, the Movement’s member Corina Bezer said the censuses are taken in order to ensure correct strategic planning and to determine exact data about the population and present them correctly and efficiently. Any error changes this picture. “What needs of the people were taken into account if hundreds of thousands of people remained out of the census and what kind of correctness was ensured when serious irregularities were committed in the census taking process?” she asked.
She also said that among the committed violations are also the employment of an insufficient number of census takers and their inappropriate training. In a multitude of cases, the answers were noted with the pencil and the data were rewritten to suit those interested.
Member Vlad Biletski said that the authorities should have better trained the people as regards the census. “The people were to be informed that the census will take place and that data will be collected from them so that they analyze the situation and formulate correct, equidistant and representative answers,” he stated, adding that the number of questions was too high and the respondents easily got tired.
The Movement’s head Dinu Plangau said that as representatives of civil society, they set up a hotline through which the people daily reported hundreds of cases of violations of the right to take part in the census. When the National Bureau of Statistics was notified, it didn’t react. Afterward, the Bureau’s administration described the notifications as subjective, denying the commission of violations.
The members of the Civic Movement “Moldova’s Young People” requested the administration of the National Bureau of Statistics to provide explanations over these accusations in a news conference that will involve not only representatives of the media, but also of civil society.
The census was taken on May 12-25, 2014. According to the preliminary results made public at the end of last year, Moldova has less than 3 million (2 913 281) people, 11.29% (32 9108) of whom are abroad. Of the total number of people, 48.41% are men, while 51.58% are women.
