Today the first plenary session of the legislative Chamber of the Great (Ulug) Khural took place. Out of 32 available deputy posts, 22 were elected during the first two rounds of the election. The main questions on the agenda of their first sitting were to adopt the Regulations of their work and elect the head of the Chamber. The first one was settled easily by voting every passage of the revised document. But the next one turned out to be an unsurpassable barrier over which the House stumbled several times. Ex-speaker of the Parliament Sholban Kara-ool's refusal to run for the speaker's post anew was a suprise for everyone. In his speech Kara-ool mentioned that during the election campaign he was accused of slowing the progress of the Republic because of his opposing position to the Executive Branch. And he remarked that the only thing he was doing was trying to abide by the law and observe that the Executive Branch of the state act within the law. He pointed out that the argument used several times in the election against him, stating that the Legislature should coordinate its behavior with the Executive Branch is wrong. His firm belief is that the Legislature is an autonomous branch of power, without whose control the system of checks and counterbalances won't function and democratic laws will be just a declaration. Still, if the majority of the new Parliament think of him as obstructive, he will take his candidacy off of the list. With this statement made deputies forwarded as candidates Vasilii Oiun,ex-vice-prime-minister of the Tuvan Government, Boris Kuderek, ex-minister for Health care, and Khonuk-ool Mongush, chief of the Respotrebsoyuz (Union of Consumers, a firm responsible for the supplies of goods in the rural areas). But none of them got the necessary 17 votes: Oiun - 8, Kuderek - 2, Mongush - 2.