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NORTH KOREANS HAVE voted in a pre-determined election for a rubber-stamp parliament an exercise that doubles as a national head count and may offer clues to power shifts in Pyongyang.
The vote to elect representatives for the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) was taking place as scheduled, the state-run KCNA news agency said, adding that voter turnout was a whopping 91 percent as of 2.00 pm local-time.
Those who are ill or infirm and cannot travel to polling stations are casting votes at special “mobile ballot boxes,” it added.
“Overjoyed” voters rushed to polling stations across the country from early in the morning, it claimed, adding many danced and played music on the street in praise of the leader, Kim Jong-Un.
The North’s state TV showed hundreds of people across the country clad in brightly-coloured traditional dresses dancing in circle on the street.
State-run media have in recent weeks stepped up propaganda to promote the election, with a number of poems produced to celebrate voting under titles including “The Billows of Emotion and Happiness” and “We Go To Polling Station.”
Apart from the physical casting of votes, there is nothing democratic about the ballot. The results are a foregone conclusion, with only one approved candidate standing for each of the 687 districts.
It was the first election to the SPA under the leadership of Kim, who took over the reins of power on the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il, in December 2011.
And like his father before him, Kim stood as a candidate, in constituency number 111, Mount Paektu.
Koreans have traditionally attributed divine status to Mount Paektu and, according to the North’s official propaganda, Kim Jong-Il was born on its slopes.
TV footage showed hundreds of soldiers queuing up at a polling station in constituency number 111 and dancing in unison on the street to festive music.
People gather to watch performers near an election site in the Central District in Pyongyang. (Pic: AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)
Portraits of Kim’s late father and grandfather were hung on the wall behind the ballot box. Soldiers deeply bowed to the portraits after casting their votes.
“I gave the vote, the evidence of my loyalty, to our supreme leader comrade,” one soldier said in a TV interview.
Elections are normally held every five years to the SPA, which only meets once or twice a year, mostly for a day-long session, to rubber-stamp budgets or other decisions made by the ruling Workers’ Party.
The last session in April 2013 adopted a special ordinance formalising the country’s position as a nuclear weapons state, a status that both South Korea and the United States have vowed not to recognise.
The real interest for outside observers is the final list of candidates or winners both lists being identical.
Many top Korean officials are members of the parliament, and the election is an opportunity to see if any established names are absent.
It comes at a time of heightened speculation over the stability of Kim’s regime.
Kim has already overseen sweeping changes within the North’s ruling elite — the most dramatic example being the execution of his powerful uncle and political mentor Jang Song-Thaek in December on charges of treason and corruption.
In the absence of any competing candidates, voters are simply required to mark “yes” next to the name on the ballot sheet.
“Let us all cast ‘yes’ votes,” said one of many election banners that state TV showed being put up in the capital Pyongyang.
And they do.
The official turnout at the last election in 2009 was put at 99.98 percent of registered voters, with 100 percent voting for the approved candidate in each seat.
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I remember we had a democratic vote here in this Country in 2008. The Country voted no to the Lisbon treaty only to be told that actually lads that’s not the answer were looking for, we’ll have to do that again until we get the right answer.
Yes and the media never said a bad word about this erosion of democracy we only have the illusion of choice
Yet people were stupid enough to vote yes the second time
Well said Tom, we can be just the lackey the North Koreans are, at least when it comes to the EU referendums
In fairness they were told to vote yes for jobs if I remember correctly Fergal……
You’re right Kerry I remember seeing that promise about jobs on posters and thinking these politicians would say mass and the sad part is people will believe it
Those jobs never came more broken promises when are people going to wake up from their brainwashed state of sheep
When they put yes for jobs on the posters I thought people could never be so stupid. I was proved wrong again.
You are bemoaning that you were allowed to vote for a second time on something? Given that the vote went through it is obvious the decision to hold a vote again was right. What people want can change you know. And it did in this case. But no, pretend the EU is North Korea – because that’s more fun
Ah come on really? Are you suggesting a political slogan on a poster constitutes a promise? If it does how are you measuring whether this promise was fulfilled? Do you have stats on where unemployment would be if Lisbon hadn’t been passed? What time period are you measuring over?
Liam
Maybe when you grow up and start thinking like a man you will understand that one vote should of been enough. I’m not sure if you are immature or trolling.
Are you actually on a thread about North Korea complaining that people in Ireland are asked for their opinion in votes too often? You are just trotting out the usual anti EU nonsense without thinking it through.
As yourself something Liam. Do you honestly think the people would have been afforded the oppourtunity to vote again if the result of the first referendum was yes? Or were we simply allowed to vote again because the powers that be wanted a different answer.
Democracy at its best , Yes or die
Still more cost-effective than our model. “We’ll keep running it until we get a yes.”
I couldn’t get this on paddy power. :(
91% turnout? North Koreas population set to decrease by 9% so
Soylent green production up by 9%
That’s 91% by 2pm – the other 9% will be along shortly.
Not much different here, you might have 4 or 5 choices but at the end of the day it’s all the same, jobs for the boys and big pensions,
Because that’s what the people want, anyone can go on the ballot
You do great disservice to those living under such regimes. Ireland can change its leadership if people don’t like it. They cannot. Muppet…
Very similar to the voting system in Co Louth…
No it’s not Kris. The people of Louth democratically vote for their TDs. The people of North Korea don’t. But sure don’t let that get in the way of any opportunity to knock Sinn Féin. Something something child abuse. Something something the disappeared. Something something something something.
Just like we can change Lisbon and nice
Even bigger Muppet Lm…
O Reilly go back to school tosser
Beware of the voices Roland…
Only every 4yrs we can change in the mean time a government can destroy a country like FG is doing very well.
We can change the ‘leadership’ but only their name? Fianna Fail, Fine Gael they are all the fianna same.
Change will only mattet when the people who ‘govern’ us do so for the benefit of ALL the people.
There won’t be too many spoilt votes in that Election.
North Korea is Best Korea.
人人生来自由，在尊严和权利上一律平等。他们有理性和良心，请以手足关系的精神相对待。
Now stick that in your pipe and smoke it!
ليس هناك شيء أكثر خطورة من احمق الحيلة.
I think this is more appropriate for you Spud Jones
Actually this is korean》멍청이! Translate that.
I don’t like spiders.
Your on the wrong continent there Alan
Shame The Government didn’t just fill out the forms for them and let them have a lie in on Sunday morning. Poor form.
Those North Koreans could learn a thing or two from us paddies. We don’t need the threat of execution to do what we’re told. We just do it like lemmings.
I know who I’d be voting for
I voted no to the Lisbon treaty and then what happened? So don’t even try have a go about North Korean, Irish Government are cowards
Seems legit
Didn’t we vote twice on the same referenda a few times?
I think so, wasn’t Nice voted on twice?
Yep and Lisbon. They don’t do democracy here either.
Yes but our referenda have two boxes.
Touche
Ya see ireland hey……it’s not the worst!
apparently in DPRK you can vote No once in your life but it isn’t recommended
Dear Leader makes me happy in pants.
I for one wish to welcome our glorious leader – Kim Jong Merkell and praise be for the gift of austerity that has been bestowed upon us.
The only difference between dictatorships and democracy is we can vote for different dictators.
At least it leaves very little opportunity for interfering with the count and changing the outcome.
“When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson
The headline could also apply to an Irish Referendum concerning Europe!
The Irish love democracy when their team are winning …
Bit like the irish electorate and fine fail during the boom…..except irish people actually had a choice!
All Western Propaganda. North Korea is a paradise. We in Ireland could learn so much about how a centrally planned economy is so much better for us. Oh, we voted twice for a referendum – Ireland is just the same as North Korea.
Sad!
“We go to polling station”. Now, I don’t know anything about Korean, but I’m willing to bet the original title of this song sounded grammatical. Why, then, was it not translated as “We go to the polling station”? By leaving out the definite article, the author is attempting to make the supposedly ignorant locals sound barbarous, with Tarzan-like speech. Poor form.
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