Entertaining both sides in election, face refusal (6)
I believe the answer is:
denial
'refusal' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'entertaining both sides in election face' is the wordplay.
'entertaining' is an insertion indicator.
'both sides in' means to remove the middle letters (only the side letters remain).
'face' becomes 'dial' (face of a clock).
'election' with its centre taken out is 'en'.
'en' placed into 'dial' is 'DENIAL'.
(Other definitions for denial that I've seen before include "Rejection of a request" , "Refusal to believe an unacceptable truth" , "Repudiation" , "Rejection or refusal" , "Declaration that something is untrue" .)