One option, no other choice, still 100 percent turnout: How N Korea votes in parliamentary elections

Voting for the rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly is mandatory and there is no choice of candidates. Any kind of dissent does not take place and there is mostly around 100% turnout.

Commuters read a copy of the Rodong Sinmun newspaper showing an image of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un casting his ballot at the 14th Supreme People's Assembly elections, on display at a subway station in Pyongyang on March 11, 2019. - North Koreans went to the polls March 10 for an election in which there could be only one winner. Leader Kim Jong Un's ruling Workers' Party has an iron grip on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as the isolated, nuclear-armed country is officially known. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP)

New Delhi: North Koreans voted on Sunday to elect the country’s rubber- stamp parliament with a ballot paper having no choice of candidates. In the country ruled by the Kim family dynasty, people are obligated to show loyalty towards the family and elections are more of a display of loyalty where the Koreans vote in unity for one person. Voting for the rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly is mandatory and there is no choice of candidates. Any kind of dissent does not take place and there is mostly around 100% turnout. All the people aged 17 or above are required to go to the polling booths and cast their votes. In the ballot paper there is no choice and people are just supposed to put the paper into the ballot box. The process mostly takes place in open. There is a private voting booth also, but going there to cast vote would mean inviting suspicion,  BBC quoted North Korea analyst Fyodor Tertitskiy, who is based in the South Korean capital Seoul. After the process is done, people are supposed to go out and join cheering groups for having been able to cast vote to support the leadership of the country. The Rodong Sinmun, the daily of the North's ruling Workers' Party, carried an editorial that stressed the election will manifest people's "fixed will to firmly trust and uphold" leader Kim Jong-un. The official voter turnout was tallied at 99.97 per cent for the last election, with 100 per cent voting for the approved candidates. The results of the 2014 elections were announced two days after the voting day.