The new Chechen parliament that convened for its first session on Monday elected the chairmen of the People's Assembly (lower house) and the Council of the Republic (upper house).

Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov was elected the speaker of the lower house and Akhmarkhadzhi Gazikhanov became the head of the upper house. Both ran from the pro-presidential United Russia party.

Abdurakhmanov was born in 1956 in Kazakhstan. He graduated from Chechen-Ingush University as a teacher of history and the Chechen-Ingush Pedagogical Institute as an economist.

He worked as the head of a rural council and a city council in different parts of Chechnya, as head of the administration in the city of Gudermes and deputy head of the administration in Argun, minister of agriculture and concurrently as vice prime minister in the Chechen government.

On November 27, 2005, he was elected to the Chechen parliament from United Russia.

Until election, Gazikhanov, 38, worked as head of the department of executive reform in the Nozhai-Yurt district administration. He was nominated for parliament by United Russia.

Fifty-eight deputies of the Chechen parliament were elected on November 27, including 18 to the Council of the Republic and 40 to the People's Assembly. United Russia has 33 seats in the parliament, including nine in the upper house and 24 in the lower house. The Communist Party received six seats (three in each of the houses) and the Union of Right Forces (SPS) has three seats in the People��s Assembly. One representative from the Eurasian Union was elected to the Council of the Republic. There are also 14 independent MPs, including five in the upper house and nine in the lower house.

Source: Agencies