Sentence:  The Ministry had their candidate, a <WSD>stalking-horse</WSD>, useful only to receive the purely Ministerial votes. The votes, thus divided, gave no result. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A candidate put forward to serve a hidden, ulterior purpose in a political campaign, such as testing the field for another potential candidate by gauging voter sentiment or covertly helping another candidate by attracting voters away from a third candidate.