Heard an interesting take on this other day.
They already have someone else lined up to do the whitewash. She was put forward knowing that there will be a backlash because of her connections and previous.
If she were allowed to go through with it and the result appears a whitewash, it would rumble on.
If she was replaced, it would give the illusion of democracy, and if the results still appear a whitewash, people would less likely to complain and it might just go away enough to carry on as normal.
Problem, Reaction, Solution.
Interesting, let's see what happens....
This wasn't stated as fact by the way...
More of a "Wouldn't surprise me if...." sort of thing.