Bosnia Finally Gets Government after October Polls

Bosnia's parliament on Tuesday voted in a long-awaited government which vowed to relaunch the process of EU integration, blocked for years by political disputes.

The new nine-member cabinet will be led by Denis Zvizdic, a 50-year-old trained architect and an official of the main Muslim party SDA. 

The government is composed of nationalist parties from three key ethnic groups -- Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

The new central cabinet was named nearly six months after polls were held and won the support of 26 lawmakers in the 42-seat house.

Squabbling over the jobs and the division of power has slowed down the formation of governments in Bosnia's highly decentralized political system. 

"We need serious changes... the new government should bring in a new energy," Mladen Ivanic, the current chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency.

One of Europe's poorest countries with a jobless rate over 40 percent, Bosnia witnessed violent protests last February against the government's failure to fight graft and enact EU-sought reforms.

Some analysts do not exclude new protests if the new government fails to revive the economy.

Zvizdic said his main priorities would be to resume the process of integration into the European Union and "introduce a series of social and economic reforms."

Brussels last year adopted a new initiative aimed at accelerating reforms in Bosnia, the only country in the region that has yet to officially apply for the status of a EU candidate country.

Since the end of the 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war, Bosnia has been divided into two semi-independent entities with a loose central government.