The census of the population which begins on Saturday shook up the governing coalition after BDI leader Ali Ahmeti said that all ethnic Albanians who had been absent from the country for more than a year but have entered Macedonia at least once in the last year would be taken record of. Senior sources from governing VMRO-DPMNE say that the party is surprised by Ahmeti’s statement especially because he promised that Albanians would not dispute the census as was the case in the past.

“The law is very clear. All those that in the course of one year entered Macedonia at least once, all having property, houses but are not here at the moment will be included in the total number of the population,” Ahmeti said Tuesday.

He also appealed to the political parties not to speculate about the number of Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Roma, Serbs, etc, and to leave that to the relevant authorities.