[ParoxysmalVigor]

Election rigging is a finite resource. After certain amount regime loses it's legitimacy. This in turn creates a regime phase transition, which in certain scenarios could be not fatal (as Belarus and Venezuela examples shows us), but very painful for the elites and increases all sorts of risks, especialy for current incumbent.

Also there are investors, external and internal, which are too all over risks, this damages economy and national currency.

[tomerv]

Election rigging is a renewable resource. At the start, you can tilt the results a bit in your favor. As you gain power you also gain more influence and popularity, and then you can build deeper structures of corruption, which enable further election rigging. The cycle continues until it implodes with a revolution. Then the citizens are left with a broken government - after removing the corrupted parts - and must rebuild everything. The lack of structure allows more corrupted players to enter, and that's why a single revolution us not always enough to move a country from a fake democracy to a functioning one.