Nino Burjanadze

Nino Burjanadze is a Georgian politician and lawyer who served as Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia from November 2001 to June 2008. As the first woman, she served as the acting head of state of Georgia twice; the first time from 23 November 2003 to 25 January 2004 in the wake of Eduard Shevardnadze's resignation during the Rose Revolution, and again from 25 November 2007 to 20 January 2008, after Mikheil Saakashvili stepped down to run in the early presidential election. She withdrew into opposition to Saakashvili as the leader of the Democratic Movement – United Georgia party in 2008. In 2013, she ran in the presidential election, competing against 22 candidates; she ended third with 10 percent of the vote.