In the last three chapters, we analyzed electoral breakthroughs from 1998 to 2004 in Slovakia and Croatia (Chapter 3), Serbia (Chapter 4), and Ukraine (Chapter 5). Although there were many differences among these electoral episodes, especially with respect to regime contexts and the role of popular protests in the transitions from one government to another, these elections nonetheless shared one common characteristic. The transfer of power took place for the simple reason that the democratic opposition won the elections and was able, as a result, to form a government, as in Slovakia, or win the presidential office, as in Croatia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

In this chapter, we compare the final two elections in the postcommunist region that led to the removal of authoritarian leaders from office: the November 2003 election in Georgia and the March 2005 election in Kyrgyzstan. The logic of pairing these two cases is, first, that these countries were removed in geographical terms from the hothouse atmosphere supporting democratic change as a result of the shared borders among Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, and Ukraine. Second, the elections in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan were for the parliament, not for the presidency, the latter a post in both countries that is very powerful and directly elected.