Bosnians Protest Year-Long Government Stalemate

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Audronius Azubalis

Bosnian activists have protested the failure of the country's leadership to form a government a year after national elections. The government has been locked in a stalemate since elections on the October 3, 2010.

The ministries of government are divided among ethnic Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims.

Croat leaders are unable to come to agreement on who should head their ministries.

The activists, mainly artists, formed a symbolic "citizens' government" on October and tried to force their way into the government building, before they were stopped by police.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis, whose country holds the OSCE's rotating presidency, also urged Bosnian politicians and parties on October 3 to continue their efforts to form a new state government.

Without a government, the country cannot carry out reforms that would allow Bosnia to get closer to its goal of joining the European Union.

The constitution has no rules for such a deadlock and it could theoretically continue until elections in 2014.

compiled from agency reports