Census not completed, complaints downplayed

Government officials are playing down complaints about the national census operation on Sunday (May 16) leaving at least 5 percent of the popularion uncounted even though they waited at home throughout the day.
At 6:30 p.m. Mona Lisa Bianchini Comptroller said that 95% of the population of the Republic had been listed but in the populous areas of east-Tocumen Panama, Pacora and December 24, "residents could not be counted for lack of forms.”

The director of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), Danis Cedeno, has ordered the printing of 30 000 new booklets to replace those damaged by flooding on Saturday (May 15) in Penonomé (Cocle) and San Carlos (Panama).

The institution must now decide on a new date of the census in the area east of Panama City.

Comptroller officials downplayed complaints of those surveyed for lack of documentation and transportation, describing what happened as "minor problems."
Inec director said that preliminary data from population and housing, township, district and province will be announced in five days