There have been elections, and a surprising number of them are even competent, but at beast they have five years' experience, and at the moment they're all concentrating on their own areas. I think this would work better as "There have been elections, and a surprising number of the winners are even competent..." or something along those lines, because what you are saying in the first version is that the elections are competent and have five years' experience, which is kind of funny to picture in my head. How does one anthropomorphize an election anyway? *grin*

I really like the cultural stuff you're doing here, with the danger of funerals and the polite fiction doors, and also the way you're addressing the political chaos Shinra's fall would logically create, and how it's a useful fiction to pretend Reeve wasn't actually part of Avalanche.