But after more than a decade in office, Akayev's rule took on trappings of dynasty. His family grew visibly wealthy, with Akayev reportedly taking a share of a gold mine and his son opening a string of luxury specialty stores -- the looters' first target Thursday.
And although Akayev, 60, promised to relinquish the presidency as required by the constitution at the end of his third term in October, he had not acted like a man heading for retirement.
Kyrgyz troops in the southern city of Osh march during a parade celebrating the opposition's victory over the government of President Askar Akayev, who fled when protesters took power Thursday.
(Myktybek Sariyev -- AP)
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Parliamentary elections in February proved pivotal. Akayev's government disqualified prominent opponents, while his daughter and son were eased onto the ballot. International observers called the Feb. 27 ballot badly flawed. A runoff two weeks later produced a chamber dominated by novices with economic or clan ties to Akayev.
"We filmed the chairman of the election commission telling people to vote for certain candidates, sitting beside the ballot box: 'Okay, you, vote for this person,' " said Marat Sultanov, a former chairman of the central bank and finance minister turned lawmaker.
Sultanov's supporters took to the streets on March 13 in Chong Alay, in the southwest near the border of Tajikistan, a corner of the country so remote the people do not have television.
"The main thing is, people didn't want to be humiliated any more," Sultanov said.
At the other end of the country, an incumbent candidate, Arstan Maliev, was disqualified from the race. Residents blocked highways in protest in two towns, and two-thirds of ballots came in unmarked, Sultanov said.
Events in the southern city of Jalal-Abad, Bakiyev's base, presaged the fall of the capital. On March 21, a crowd of 3,000 overwhelmed security forces and took over the main government building.
"That was the beginning," said Edil Baisalov, leader of the opposition Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, made up of civil groups.
Demonstrators soon took over Osh, the largest city in the south. But as the protests grew, Akayev only stiffened, brushing aside talk of negotiations.
"Power structures can't show weakness when faced with color revolutions," he declared March 23, referring to Ukraine's Orange Revolution and Georgia's Rose Revolution.
Members of the opposition -- calling themselves the People's Movement of Kyrgyzstan -- began discussing taking the rebellion to the capital. A coordination council of 40 people was named that included many prominent politicians, among them Bakiyev, a former prime minister.
But the country's most prominent political prisoner, Felix Kulov, was operating independently. Kulov, a former mayor of Bishkek and KGB chief, issued orders from jail by coded letters and a smuggled cell phone with Internet access, said Aliev, his deputy in the Dignity party. The party turned out hundreds of marchers.
Civic activists such as Baisalov also played a crucial, if sensitive, role. The earnest, lanky activist had been inspired by the uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine, and had even visited Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, to study the Orange Revolution. He recalled the words of victorious opposition leaders from both countries when they later met at a Carpathian resort, jointly heralding a "third wave" of democratic transformation would sweep the globe.
