Con elected crony (6)

I believe the answer is:

inmate

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'con' is the definition.
(I know that con can be written as inmate)

'elected crony' is the wordplay.
'elected' becomes 'in' (in government).
'crony' becomes 'mate' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in'+'mate'='INMATE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for inmate that I've seen before include "Occupant" , "you mightn't want him to escape" , "Inhabitant of prison or hospital" , "Inhabitant of prison or other institution" , "One is in jail" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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