GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) | Although realizing late that it had failed to honor its own stalwart

Hello - in E it say 'realized late' meaning past tense for the first clause, but then goes on to say 'the ruling United Front targeting the opposition..' which is present tense. Besides the fact targeting to my native ear sounds completely wrong, how is E not wrong based on the mismatch between past/present tenses above?

Thanks!