What are the demerits (disadvantages) of electoral competition?

The following are certain demerits of electoral competition:

• It creates disunity and factionalism

• Candidates often use dirty tricks to discredit their opponents and win elections

• Long term policies may become a casualty of electoral politics

• Money power is often a crucial determinant of results in elections and smaller and independent candidates may not have sufficient resources to compete with big parties on equal terms