Bosnian parliament's lower chamber to vote on new PM on Dec 5

The head of the house of representatives, Denis Zvizdic, has called an extraordinary session for December 5 to endorse the nomination, the chamber announced on Tuesday.

Bosnia's tripartite presidency proposed Tegeltija for the position of prime minister on November 19 - more than a year after the October 2018 general election.

Earlier this year, the presidency cancelled several sessions on the vote on new prime minister because its three members - Sefik Dzaferovic representing Bosniaks, Zeljko Komsic representing Croats, and Milorad Dodik representing Serbs - could not agree on Bosnia's Annual National Programme (ANP), which is a condition for activating its Membership Action Plan for NATO.

Pro-Russian Dodik has been opposing to the ANP adoption, while pro-NATO Komsic and Dzaferovic have been insisting that the adoption of the ANP is a necessary condition for voting the country's new state-level government into office.

Still, on November 19, the three also decided to submit to NATO Bosnia's reform programme within a day after the nomination of Tegeltija and his cabinet ministers is confirmed by the house of representatives.

The proposed new prime minister Tegeltija is a member of SNSD party led by Dodik and a former finance minister of Bosnia's Serb Republic entity. Bosniak leaders have said they will support Tegeltija only if he backs the country's NATO membership bid.

The three parties representing Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats - the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) - emerged as the strongest in the country in the October 2018 vote.

They announced on August 8 that they have agreed to form a government, setting September 5 as the deadline for voting the cabinet into office.

The Serb Republic and the Federation are two autonomous entities that form Bosnia.