The AIs could be better but there are some who build really amazing companies and formidable competitors.

I feel like if you have majority ownership of their companies or the human player is their boss that's when they absolutely suck.

While the dev team was checking the election issue you mentioned, they also improved the gameplay balance of the election system. Please give the latest version 11.0.73 a try and see if it will work better for you. You may download the patch from https://www.capitalism2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10200