Baghdad (CNN) -- After nearly a year fraught with political infighting, Iraq finally has a government.
The Iraqi parliament on Tuesday voted in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government, even though some vacancies remain.
The long-awaited legislative action comes more than nine months after a hotly disputed national election that threatened to inflame the country's deep sectarian tensions.
Within moments of the announcement, celebratory gunfire broke out across the capital.
This is a "day of pride" for the Iraqi people, al-Maliki said on Monday, referencing the difficulty associated with the process of assembling a new governing coalition. CNN
