The Borneo Post

North Korea election sees 99.99% turnout — KCNA

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PYONGYANG: Turnout in North Korea’s single- candidate elections hit 99.99 per cent this year, state media said yesterday — up from a seemingly unimprovab­le 99.97 per cent the last time they were held.

With participat­ion figures that Western democracie­s would never achieve, millions of North Koreans head to nationwide polls every five years to elect the rubber- stamp legislatur­e known as the Supreme People’s Assembly.

But with only one approved name on each voting slip in the isolated country, which is ruled with an iron grip by Kim Jong Un’s Workers’ Party, the result is never in doubt.

This year’s turnout fell just short of 100 per cent as those ‘abroad or working in oceans’ were unable to take part, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.

Like in 2014, results for the nationwide election held at the weekend came in 100 per cent in favour of all named candidates.

“All the electors participat­ed as one in the election to cement our people’s power as firm as a rock,” KCNA said, citing a report released by the Central Election Committee.

“One hundred per cent of them cast their ballots for the candidates for deputies to the SPA registered in relevant constituen­cies,” it added.

A detailed list of the 687 candidates was not immediatel­y available.

But leader Kim’s younger sister and close aide Kim Yo Jong was among the newly elected according to the South’s Yonhap news agency, citing Pyongyang state media. Critics say the North’s election — with its total absence of electoral competitio­n — is largely a political rite for enabling the authoritie­s to claim a mandate from the people while reinforcin­g loyalty to the government and social unity. — AFP

 ??  ?? Commuters read the Rodong Sinmun newspaper showing an image of Jong Un casting his ballot at the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly elections, on display at a subway station in Pyongyang. — AFP photo
Commuters read the Rodong Sinmun newspaper showing an image of Jong Un casting his ballot at the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly elections, on display at a subway station in Pyongyang. — AFP photo

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