North Korean Local Elections: Lack of Competition and Transparency

2023-11-28 20:57:00

“A total of 27,858 workers, farmers, intellectuals and officials were elected new deputies to the provincial, municipal, district and county assemblies during the local elections held on Sunday,” announced the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). A controversial vote from a democratic point of view since there is no competitor. Voters can only approve or disapprove the candidacy of Labor Party candidates.

At the provincial level, 99.91% voted for and 0.09% once morest. For city and county assemblies, 99.87% voted for the candidates and 0.13% once morest. A surprising start to transparency since it is the first time that North Korea has disclosed the percentage of negative votes. “We must see this as a desire to show that residents can correctly express their opinions in elections, but we are still very far from guaranteeing the right to vote,” explains a South Korean minister anonymously to the Korea Times.

Please note that the principle of secret ballot voting is not respected. The two ballot boxes, one to approve the candidates and the other to show dissatisfaction, are visible to everyone. It is therefore very easy to know what a person voted for.

1701218330
#North #Korea #results #elections #surprising #time #happened #1960s