The internal political game is lacking in GCIIDA, IMO. I miss version 1 of GalCiv (the Win version) in which staying elected truly was dfifficult, but I'm willing to compromise and came up with, what I think is a good idea:

The political party with the SECOND most votes in the elctions gains SOME sort of influence. now, let's keep this simple to make it realistically possible to implement:

The effects could be mostly negative, in other words a 1/5 or so the opposite effect they would have had if they were in power.

I'm just desperate for the elections to mean something MORE in this game... as it is they are practically pointless, and unless I can see a way to mod them a bit, there's simply no fun to be had by them...

I'd like to know if the parties that gain or lose influence are determined randomely or if there is something more to it- doss the War party gain when war is wanted or more military by the people? I HOPE this is so... Maybe despite popularity being >55% or so another party could come into power if certain areas of your empire (Tech, military, economics, population) are overlooked sufficiently (and with a bit of bad luck). Is there a way to add an event that put sanother party into power??

Just some ideas for now, but I'd really like it if SD thought about adding some of them or took inspiration from them.