This is one of those things that only happen in anglo-like systems. In more "napoleonic" systems, the State has direct oversight of this sort of thing. In Italy or France, if a local authority tried to pull something like this, the police would literally step in and disband it a day after. You can have disputes on the legality of the election, or confusion about who should take the seat afterwards, but you can't just hold elections and then ignore the result.