Ural Mukhamedzhanov got the backing of 65 of the 74 deputies in a secret ballot during the new parliament\'s first session. Three deputies voted against and the other six ballots were deemed invalid. Mukhamedzhanov, 56, a former Communist party bureaucrat, has held various positions in the government apparatus and president\'s administration since 1995. Another Otan deputy, Sergei Dyachenko, was elected Wednesday as deputy parliament speaker. Otan, which is led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and other government-aligned parties won an overwhelming majority of seats in the former Soviet republic\'s parliament in Sept. 19 elections. The vote was criticized by international observers as falling short of democratic standards. The three opposition parties said the vote results had been falsified. The former parliament speaker, senior Otan official Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, quit the post and the party to protest the conduct of the elections, which he said were flawed. Nazarbayev, a former Communist boss, has drawn criticism in recent years for attempts to tighten controls. (AP)