Political parties that have held the majority vote for a long time would naturally want to retain their seat in government. 

The longer a political party has been successfully elected in government, the more likely they are to resort to unconventional methods like trying to influence other parties' vote counts if they are about to lose an election.

(Specific examples for said unconventional methods could include the party paying off a certain Population for more votes or meddling in vote counting.)


If the player finds out about vote meddling, the party will be caught and the player will be given a choice - 

1.  Repeat the election (with a large popularity loss for the party and inability to alter the votes in the next few elections)

2.  Make the party leader step down (with the elected party retaining the position for the election and a much lesser popularity loss).


Political leaders that have stepped down from leadership can't participate in elections for a certain period of time. During said period, they can still work as captains of fleets (no one would like having a corrupt politician govern their home star system). 

After the period has ended, they will be able to participate as party leaders again.


Finding out about meddling in elections could be featured in a political investigation event. The event could occur if the party has been elected more than 3 or 4 times, although there is always the possibility that they are popular because of merit and they haven't been influencing votes. Falsely investigating a party of corruption could have a penalty on the player, like being less popular for a time. 

This mechanic could incentivise the player to switch up the leading parties, especially if the player lobbies for the party to be elected.  


If the player dismisses the investigation too many times, the parties are investigated without the player's input and they are forced into a decision and gets a popularity loss (this part is to prevent the player from ignoring the mechanic outright and not make a situation where the player purposefully doesn't investigate a party, they can only stall the investigation, not prevent it).


The allotted time for not participating in elections or any sort of number mentioned here are just examples and can be chosen by the developers (that's if they stumble upon this post).

Hopefully, this idea is sufficiently coherent. Any suggestions for improvements of it are welcomed.