voting the mitzva

I ask the following questions, not as an attack on a way of life, but with the greatest respect and as an attempt to understand. Please read it that way and respond accordingly.

Also, the questions are not really directed at the average native Israeli voter (not that there are too many of those reading this anyway). It is more directed toward the oleh from Western countries.

1. In the United States or in England, or wherever you are from, you would have gone into elections with a decision of which candidate you support based on the issues and the candidates policy on those issues. Issues that affect you more would sway you to one candidate over the other, based on which candidate addresses those issues and needs more.

The rabbonim in America (I will stick to America because I am familiar with it, but I think it is the same in other countries as well) might tell people to vote, but they rarely tell people which candidate to vote for. And when they do, it is rare and generally because of a specific volatile issue.

At what point do people make the transition from being able to vote on their own, perhaps with rabbinic guidance, to moving to Israel and only being able to vote depending on the announcement of a rav as to whom to vote for?

What is different that used to allow you to vote for your preferred candidate, to arriving at the point where you will only vote for the ravs candidate?

2. A second question is why the rabbonim and their voting preference is considered as anything but simply a recommendation, rather it is considered a mitzva and a demand?
My issue with voting based on a rabbinic declaration (whether it be a local one, or a national one) is that the rabbonim are generally "nogei'ah b'davar".
They will never look at the issues and say in this election party x deals with this issue more in our favor so vote for them, and in that election they say party y deals with our issues better so vote for them.
That never happens. It is always vote for one specific party. That is, the party they support, the party that they are associated with. The party that funnels money to their institutions, sometimes even based on how strongly the rav is associated with the party.

Why is the ravs opinion on voting, unless his opinion goes against the standard "vote for my party" line, taken as a mitzva? It is the clearest situation of a psak based on "negios" - conflict of interest.?

For example. Rav Ovadia Yosef will always say it is a mitzva to vote Shas. Of course - he is Shas. Will he ever say vote Gimmel, or vote Labor or vote Likud because of a specific issue? Of course not. He has a conflict of interest, and cannot say anything but vote Shas, whether he wanted to or not. Can Rav Elyashiv ever say anything but vote gimmel? Of course not. You will never hear him say vote shas, or vote Likud, or vote Marzel, or vote Kadima. He cannot. (these names were picked as common examples - they are not attacks on these rabbonim).

So to sum up my questions briefly:

1. At what point do you make the transition from deciding on your own for whom to vote, to only voting based on the announcement from a rav?
2. why are the rabbonims statements taken as mitzvos, when they are clearly "nogei'a b'davar" in these voting situations?

And again, please respond to the point and do not take these questions as attacks. They are points I never understood well, and they always disturb me every time there is a new election season.