Same problem as in Venezuela. And Russia. And Belorus'. And PRC.
When you imprison, exile, or kill all the opposition, kicking out the top tier and saying, "Elections in 21 days, candidacy petitions due in 7!" is lunacy. Moreover, just because the top tier is gone doesn't mean that loyal foot soldiers and mid-tier folkx wouldn't love to restore the old order in which they believed or which gave them their jobs, and do that by creating such chaos that people want order, any order, more than liberty. Look at Russia under Yeltsin. It's a commonplace to say that Putin restored things, but all the trendlines were good--unemployment, inflation, corruption, violence--for a couple of years prior to the 20000 election. Problem is, the improvement was less felt than the on-going disruption. (We see the same effect when looking at urban violence--violent crime may go way down, but the news doesn't pro-rate even large decreases when there's still more than enough violence to fill the newscast. Or unemployment. Or inflation.)
"Give me liberty or give me death" is the slogan of the brave few. The vast majority are usually of the "Give me freedom, but never at the expense of my life, the life of somebody I know, my income, my property, my pets ... maybe my favorite tv show!" persuasion.
And even if there is a democratic transition--whatever the hell that means--it's easy (so the allusions) goes to boil a frog. Even the dystopia that Venezuela was reaching in end-stage-Chavez and which blossomed like a corpse flower under Maduro was slow and incremental and at each stage some protested and were shut up until finally the blanket of oppression was so thorough that 7-8 million leaving was okay because to stay would lead to a lot of death and unpleasantness.
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