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The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili He was born in 1967 in Tbilisi. In 1984 he graduated from Tbilisi School N51 with honors and graduated with honors from Kiev University, Institute of International Relations, Faculty of Law. He defended the Law Master's Degree in New York Columbia University, Juridical Faculty where he studied as the Scholar of Congress of USA. In 1995-1996 he studied at Washington University National Juridical Centre Post-graduate Courses. He has been granted the Diploma of Strasbourg Human Rights International Institute in France on Human Rights Comparative Law. He worked in Norway Human Rights Institute, in Human Rights Protection State Committee of Georgia, in one of the greatest Law Office "Paterson ..." in New York . Since December 1995 he was elected as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee On Constitution, Juridical Issues and Legacy. In 1997 he was unanimously recognised as the Man of the Year by Georgian Media and NGOs. Since August, 1998 he was elected as the Chairman of the Faction "Union of Citizens". On October 31, 1999 he was elected as the Member of Parliament from Vake District E.D. N2 by the Majoritary system. Since January, 2000 he is the Vice-President of the European Council Parliamentary Assembly. Since October 12, 2000 he was appointed on the post of the Minister of Justice. On October 21, 2000, he was re-elected as the Member of Parliament by the population of Vake District. In June 2002, he was elected as the Chairman of Tbilisi Assembly ("Sakrebulo") - in effect, the city's mayor - following an agreement between the National Movement and the Georgian Labor Party. Georgia held the Parliamentary Elections on November 2, 2003 which were denounced by local and international observers as being grossly rigged. Saakashvilli claimed a landslide victory and urged Georgians to demonstrate against Shevardnadze's government and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience against the authorities. He joined forces with other opposition groups to demand the ouster of Shevardnadze and the rerun of the Elections. Massive political demonstrations (the so-called "revolution of roses") were held in Tblisi on November 20-23, with over 100,000 people participating and listening to speeches by Saaskashvili and other opposition figures. After an increasingly tense two weeks of demonstrations, Shevardnadze bowed to the inevitable and resigned as President on November 23, to be replaced on an interim basis by Parliamentary Speaker, Nino Burjanadze. On January 4, 2004 he was elected by the majority of votes as the President of Georgia. |
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