CIS Member State Parliamentary elections were held in Kyrgyzstan on 27 February and 13 March 2005.
[1] The belief that the elections had been rigged by the government led to widespread protests, culminating in the Tulip Revolution on 24 March in which President Askar Akayev was overthrown.
[1][2] However, several members of the opposition were prevented from running by a new electoral law that required candidates to have lived in the country for at least five years before an election.
[2] These spread across the country, and on 24 March Akayev fled to Russia, whilst Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev resigned.
[2] An emergency session of parliament on the same day saw Kurmanbek Bakiyev appointed as Acting Prime Minister.