Yeah, the credibility of most political analyst sorts kinda went out the window with their predictions on recent elections, and their generally unchecked left-bias positions (which contributed to their 'analysis' being junk).

I don't think many would deny something like competing in a 100 meter dash against no opponents, if you have the option, is likely going to result in you winning the race. And people who are only concerned with the technicalities of winning the race, would encourage you to do just that. But when you have an audience watching you time the start of the race so that you're the only competitor, with the intention of not giving people a choice/chance to have viable alternatives, its a shit move that should be punished -- and it's highly unlikely that the crowd is going to be polite as you go through the motions of collecting your first place prize against a field of 0 competitors.

Another part of this, is that it's an authoritarian move. In some ways, it's more informative to look at current politics as authoritarian vs individualistic (libertarian?), than left vs right, as both left and right are trending heavily towards authoritarian, anti-democratic/anti-individual practices. It undermines basic democratic principles, for the benefit of an authoritarian government that wants to make it "look" like they're giving the people a choice, but in reality they aren't. They're setting things up so that there is no realistic alternative. It's a few degrees softer than places like Russia / NK / China, but its a similar playbook as when those dictatorships overtly ban opposition candidates from ballots. "Putin was re-elected! He has the support of the people!" .... yea, no. He was just the one candidate that didnt accidentally fall out a window.