As speaker of the parliament, Gorbunovs was acting president of the republic per the 1992 Constitution until 1993, when Guntis Ulmanis was elected president.
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From 1989 to 1995, he was speaker of the Latvian parliament (first, of the Supreme Soviet of Latvian SSR, then Supreme Soviet of Republic of Latvia, then, of the Saeima, the parliament of the newly independent Latvia).