apart from the student movement and the united opposition, the other key element in the democracy template is what is known as the "parallel vote tabulation". there are professional outside election monitors from bodies such as the organisation for security and cooperation in europe, but the ukrainian poll, like its predecessors, also featured thousands of local election monitors trained and paid by western groups. freedom house and the democratic party's ndi helped fund and organise the "largest civil regional election monitoring effort" in ukraine, involving more than 1,000 trained observers. they also organised exit polls. on sunday night those polls gave mr yushchenko an 11-point lead and set the agenda for much of what has followed. the exit polls are seen as critical because they seize the initiative in the propaganda battle with the regime, invariably appearing first, receiving wide media coverage and putting the onus on the authorities to respond. the final stage in the us template concerns how to react when the incumbent tries to steal a lost election. in belarus, president lukashenko won, so the response was minimal. in belgrade, tbilisi, and now kiev, where the authorities initially tried to cling to power, the advice was to stay cool but determined and to organise mass displays of civil disobedience, which must remain peaceful but risk provoking the regime into violent suppression.
Brazil