Millions of North Korean voters, including leader Kim Jong Un, are going to the polls to elect deputies to the national legislature, EricTalmadge reports.
An electoral worker shows a ballot 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.
The elections, held every five years, are for the entire Supreme People’s Assembly, which, on paper at least, is the highest organ of power in North Korea. Its delegates come from all over the country and all walks of life. The candidates are selected by the ruling Korean Workers’ Party and a couple of other smaller coalition parties that have seats in the assembly but exercise little independent power.
“I’m very proud to be voting for the first time,” said 19-year-old university student Kim Ju Gyong, who cast her vote Sunday morning at the Pyongyang Primary School No. 4 polling station. “I feel happy to be a citizen and I want to do my best for the future of my country.”Voting begins at around 10 a.m. depending on the location and continues until late evening. Voters show election officials their ID cards to receive their ballot, which they cast in a private booth.
Election days have a festive mood. There are often bands playing music as voters wait in line, and group dancing for those who have already finished. As an example, North Korean media reported that Kim was elected unanimously to his assembly seat in 2014, the first time parliamentary elections were held after he assumed power in 2011.
While they are decidedly not intended to foster policy debates among the general populace or for the voters to change, bottom-up, the national course, the elections are an important means for the regime to reward up-and-coming cadres and replace incumbents who have already served their usefulness. For the authorities, the elections provide a veneer of democracy and a means of monitoring the whereabouts and loyalties of citizens.
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