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Kim Jong-un Projected Winner In Landslide North Korean Election

Voter turnout in 2009 came out to 99.9 percent, with 100 percent voting for the official candidates in the Supreme People's Assembly.
Photo via AFP

Which is more surprising — that North Korea has a parliament, or that the country holds elections for it?

In an election slated to take place on Sunday, Kim Jong-un is expected to win with nearly 100 percent of the vote, officially taking the prize for the least suspenseful voting outcome since Azerbaijan accidentally released the results of their election before polls opened.

In an open letter to his constituents that also seemed to double as a premature acceptance speech, Kim thanked the North Korean public for placing their “deep trust in me and extend warm thanks to them from the bottom of my heart.”

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The North Korean parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, holds elections every five years, and consists of one representative from each of its 687 districts to choose from. It takes the concept of “rubberstamp” to the extreme, where the purpose of the legislative body is almost entirely symbolic and only convenes once or twice every year.

“Elections are meant to demonstrate the mass support that the North Korean government allegedly enjoys,” Andrei Lankov said in an article for Al Jazeera, “and also give the Kim family regime an air of legitimacy.”

Although North Korea is without question a totalitarian state, whose government operates with complete control over all components of society, the elections make clear that even the Kim family feels a need to defend the “Democratic People’s Republic of” portion of their name with something that at least outwardly looks like regular elections.

It is technically legal to vote for someone other than Kim, but you have to walk to a specially designated booth in front of state officials to do so. In a country where it is not uncommon to be publicly executed for any type of vague “anti-state” crime, it shouldn’t be surprising that the line for that special booth is not exactly wrapping around the block.

“All voters should take part in the election of the deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly as one and elect genuine representatives of the people,” Kim's letter stated.

In another official release entitled “DPRK Seethed with Election Atmosphere,” the regime reported that “constituencies and sub-constituencies are crowded with citizens confirming their names on voter rolls.”

Voter turnout in the last election, which took place in 2009, came out to 99.9 percent with 100 percent voting for the official candidates in the SPA, according to official statements.

Similar results are expected for Sunday.