Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering allows for an advantage to a particular side through electoral boundary manipulation. This is a potentially extremely powerful method to prolong an incumbent party's term of office. It must be noted, though, that there are limits to which it may be applied. Of course, a good way to prevent the exploitation of the technique is simply by preventing political leaders from holding office for extended periods of time.

In the absence of such, gerrymandering can proceed for extended periods of time. Still, these extended periods may not extend to infinity given the inherent stopgap nature of such a move. For one, the party concerned is likely to already be uncertain in their ability to hold the favour of the majority. Moreover, the boundaries can only be redrawn so many times before the population catches on. From then on, it's really a matter of whether discontent reaches critical mass and causes the incumbents to be voted out or forcibly ousted.