Well yeah, like with the USSR when Gorbachev started liberalization it didn't mean freedom of press, it meant the state media and publishers were put into the hands of a rabid anticommunist to run anticommunist propaganda pieces and censor the left wing opposition, and when they held elections the Communist party was barred from campaigning or helping local Communist parties while the opposition received institutional support from the state media and from the organized crime rings that were the primary beneficiaries of the early waves of privatization. Similarly, in the politburo itself Gorbachev's liberalization didn't mean political freedom, it meant that liberal ideas (well, socdem ideas to be exact - not that there's a real difference in effect given what we know happened - wrapped in marxist language) were the only accepted ones and anyone who so much as supported them too softly was subject to censure and attack as a "Stalinist".