Repeat, it takes a long time to elect leaders (7)
I believe the answer is:
iterate
'repeat' is the definition.
(I know that iterate is a more specific form of the action repeat)
'it takes a long time to elect leaders' is the wordplay.
'takes' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a long time' becomes 'era' (a long period of time).
'leaders' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'to elect' is 'te'.
'it'+'era'+'te'='ITERATE'
(Other definitions for iterate that I've seen before include "State repeatedly, say again" , "Repeat, state again" , "Say again, repeat" , "Utter or perform repeatedly" , "Recapitulate" .)