Only One Candidate, But North Korea Sees 99 percent turnout in Election

People line up to vote during the election at a polling station in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, March 10, 2019. Millions of North Korean voters, including leader Kim Jong Un, are going to the polls to elect roughly 700 members to the national legislature. In typical North Korean style, voters are presented with just one state-sanctioned candidate per district and they cast ballots to show their approval or, very rarely, disapproval. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

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

This year’s turnout fell just short of 100 percent as those “abroad or working in oceans” were unable to take part, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Millions of North Koreans voted in the national polls on Sunday. The election is held every five years to elect what is widely seen as a 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.

“Single-minded unity” is one of Pyongyang’s most enduring slogans and as in 2014, the votes were in the weekend elections were 100 percent in favour of the 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.

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