What he has in mind is what happened next door in Ukraine in 2004, when thousands of people protested a rigged election for a successor to President Leonid D. Kuchma, another autocrat. The protests ultimately swept to power a liberal, Western-style reformer, Viktor A. Yushchenko.

Yushchenko will face another electoral test on March 26, when Ukraine holds elections for a newly empowered Parliament.

For Yushchenko, who has vowed to move toward the European Union and NATO, the signs are not promising. The coalition he led to power eventually collapsed amid accusations of corruption. The economy slowed; impatience grew. His bloc has now fallen behind in the polls to a party led by Viktor F. Yanukovich, whose "victory" in 2004 the protests ultimately undid. — Steven Lee Myers

EDUCATION — IN EVOLUTION DEBATE, A COUNTERATTACK

In the 2005 culture war over evolution, the prime battlefields were Kansas, where the state school board voted to require that criticism of Darwin's theory be taught in biology classes, and Dover, Pa., where parents sued the school district for promoting the alternative theory known as intelligent design.

Dover voters in November tossed out the conservative school board members who changed the curriculum, and a federal judge later ruled that their requirement that intelligent design be mentioned in class violated the Constitution.

In 2006, the focus will again be on Kansas, where a raft of politicians from both parties are plotting to wrest control of the 10-member state board of education from a conservative majority.

What used to be sleepy contests that drew little publicity and even less voter turnout are expected to attract attention, and money, from Kansans riled up by 2005's skirmishes and from national interest groups on both sides. Connie Morris, who represents the wide open spaces of the state's western flank, spent less than $10,000 to win her seat in 2002; Sally Cauble, one of two candidates trying to unseat Morris, is planning to raise $100,000.

The four conservatives up for re-election are expected to face moderate Republicans in the August primary and Democrats in the November general election, with five candidates already campaigning well ahead of the June filing deadline. The state legislators and school board members in 20 states and dozens of districts across the country pushing to modify how evolution is taught will be watching the results.

If the moderates succeed, they could erase the new science standards before state tests based on them are ever administered. The tests are scheduled to be introduced in 2008.

Such a seesaw would be deja vu all over again for Kansans, who have watched late-night talk show hosts, among others, use the evolution debate to mock the state's supposed backwardness.