Yes, I'm sure they haven't held an election in 165 years because the 85% black population all agreed it would just be a waste of time. Are you serous?
What are you suggesting happened? Nobody seemed to give a shit for decades even though the situation seems clearly in favour of whoever actually decides to go through the official channels. It sounds like everyone has just been completely apathetic to who's running the town, including the 85% black majority.
There actually was a regular election
What I mean by "regular" is the kind of election where people go out to vote for one of two or more candidates. Someone winning by default doesn't say much about what the people want, except that they, once again, don't seem to really care.