Bosnian presidency nominates PM to break stalemate

Bosnia's central presidency on Tuesday finally nominated a prime minister to end an eight-month political impasse but warned that the crisis would be exacerbated if the candidate is rejected. The chairman of the rotating three-man presidency, Bosnian Serb Nebojsa Radmanovic, announced the nomination of Bosnian Croat Slavo Kukic but added that the candidate was unlikely to win the backing of the parliament. "If it happens that in parliament there is no confirmation for this candidate chosen by the presidency then we are in a much deeper political crisis than we tought so far," he told journalists, adding that he was unhappy with the situation. "It is very likely that this candidate fails to win support in the parliament so that the presidency will have to deliver a new name within eight days after the vote in the parliament," Radmanovic warned. He explained that while his party, the hardline Bosnian Serb SNSD, welcomed the idea of a Bosnian Croat prime minister they would support only the candidate proposed by the hardline Bosnian Croat HDZ parties, Borjana Kristo. The SNSD which holds an absolute majority in the Bosnian Serb part of the central parliament. Under Bosnia's complex political system a prime minister can only be voted in with a majority of votes in both parts of the central parliament: the Bosnian Serb entity's and the Muslim Croat Federation lawmakers. Since the 1992-1995 war Bosnia consists of two semi-independent entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The two are linked by weak central institutions while each has its own government. Bosnia has been without a central government since general elections on October 3 last year. The International Crisis Group think tank has said it is the worst crisis in the country since the country was created in its current form at the 1995 Dayton peace agreement which ended the war.