Story highlights Voting is compulsory for everyone over the age of 17 in North Korea 
 
 Pre-approved candidates are selected for various parts of the administration 
 
 It is also an unofficial census, checking citizens are where they should be 
 
 Seoul (CNN) It's called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. But any real notions of democracy end with the name. 
 
 North Koreans headed to the polls at the weekend to cast their ballots in elections for local representatives on provincial, city, and county People's Assemblies. 
 
 Citizens were not asked to make a choice -- the results had already been decided by Kim Jong Un's central government. 
 
 Voters were handed ballot papers but didn't mark them. They would have instead deposited them in a ballot box, signifying their support for the pre-approved candidates. 
 
 Defector Kim Kwang-jin explained that their most important job is to show up. 
 
 Read More ||||| North Korea's state-controlled elections saw a 99.97% voter turnout on Sunday, with only those absent from the country not participating, state media reported. 
 
 Almost the entire country reportedly made it to the polls, including the elderly and ill, who cast their votes through "mobile ballot boxes" for uncontested candidates carefully selected by the ruling party. 
 
 North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, who exercises complete control over the country's 24.9 million citizens, was also seen casting his ballot in the capital, Pyongyang. 
 
 The elections were Mr Kim's first at a local level since he inherited the position in 2011, with voters reportedly "singing and dancing" as they cast their vote at polling stations "clad in a festive atmosphere". 
 
 Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said: "All participants took part in the elections with extraordinary enthusiasm to cement the revolutionary power through the elections of deputies to the local people's assemblies". 
 
 Play video "North Korea: Single Party State" Video: North Korea: Single Party State 
 
 Local elections are held every four years and voters choose mayors, local assemblies and governors, who meet twice a year to approve budgets and endorse leaders that have been approved by the ruling party. 
 
 In the 2011 elections, which also saw a 99.97% voter participation rate, 28,116 representatives were elected as deputies without a single vote of opposition. 
 
 Ballot papers only present one candidate to choose from, which has been overseen by Mr Kim's Workers' Party, and any dissenting votes are considered acts of treason. 
 
 The elections have been denounced as an effort by North Korea to appear democratic, but are also an opportunity for the government to see if any established names are absent and to oust any dissident behaviour. 
 
 South Korean intelligence says that dozens of North Korean officials have been purged since Mr Kim took power in 2011, including his once powerful uncle, Jang Song-Thaek, who was condemned as "factionalist scum" following his execution in 2013. 
 
 The results of the election are expected to be officially announced early next week. ||||| VOTERS in North Korea will go to the polls on March 9th to elect deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), whose members are chosen every five years. Yes, that’s right—the totalitarian communist dynasty of North Korea holds elections. But they are, like a lot of things in North Korea, rather unusual. In fact they are not really elections at all. 
 
 For one thing, “voters” do not have much choice. They are presented with a single candidate in the district where they live. These candidates are chosen by the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, the governing coalition, which is controlled by the Workers' Party. There is only one box to tick. Abstaining or voting no would be a dangerous act of treason, given that voting takes place in booths that do not provide any secrecy, and dissenting votes must be posted into a separate ballot box. In this way the population (everyone over 17 is obliged to vote) endorses the 687 deputies in the SPA, a body that, in any case, is merely a rubber-stamp parliament that is rarely convened. In practice the supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, calls the shots, supported by the Presidium, a smaller group of senior officials. 
 
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 Mr Kim, who became supreme leader in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, is standing as a candidate in this year’s SPA elections. North Korea’s news agency says his selection as a candidate was an expression of “absolute support and profound trust” in his leadership. But Mr Kim may use the election to reshape the SPA more widely. Previous elections have been used as opportunities to change North Korea’s constitution and adjust its power structure, something Mr Kim may be particularly keen to do having executed his uncle, Jang Sung Taek, long the country’s number two, in December. At the same time, elections serve as a form of census, because voting is organised by residential unit. Updating its electoral records gives the government an opportunity to check up on the populace and make sure they are living where they are supposed to (and have not, say, defected to China). 
 
 The whole process highlights an odd thing about sham or rigged elections held in autocratic countries. It seems that even the most despotic leaders (and they do not come much more despotic than Mr Kim) feel the need to pay democracy the back-handed compliment of imitating its outward appearance, if not its underlying political model. North Korea's leaders seem to take their pantomime polls seriously. Mr Kim is standing in constituency number 111, whereas his father stood in number 333; both numbers are said to bring luck. Based on past experience, the Kims tend not to need it. 
 
 Dig deeper: 
 
 The day The Economist was invited to North Korea to explain the Big Mac Index (June 2013) 
 
 How democracy ran into trouble, and how it can be revived (March 2014) 
 
 Parallel worlds: a special report on North and South Korea (October 2013) ||||| If you’re a North Korean citizen trying to make an (underground) living in China, there’s one event that will certainly bring you back home: election day in the DRPK, when many flood back into the country to have their votes counted whenever they are called. 
 
 Why? According to defector Mina Yoon, who left North Korea in 2011, elections function mainly as a means for the state to keep track of its population’s whereabouts and to keep track of defectors. 
 
 “The government checks the list of voters and if your name is not on the list, they will investigate it”, she told NK News. “It is often during election that the government finds out about defectors and people who have been missed”. 
 
 Since the collapse of the state’s public distribution system during the famine of the mid-1990s, Yoon said, old ways of keeping track of citizens no longer work. While before citizens’ movements were monitored and reported on by the head of their local inminban (North Korea’s official neighborhood busybodies, who keep watch over their communities), now “people move to other areas to do businesses without pass, there is no way for the head to check them”. 
 
 However, when election day rolls around, everything changes: “Since people have to register one month before the election starts, those who left town for the business should come back”, Yoon said. 
 
 If the state realises you did not turn up to vote, you and your family are in trouble. 
 
 “Defectors in China come back to North Korea risking their lives because they are afraid of possible damages to their family or loved ones left in North Korea when the government figures out that they are missing”, Yoon said. 
 
 “If the state realises you did not turn up to vote, you and your family are in trouble” 
 
 Many, she said, return to China after the election and will come back yet again for the next election, saying, “Those who got used to the life in China, which is better than the one in North Korea, they tend to escape again”. 
 
 Yoon, who participated in elections in North Korea, told NK News that most people aren’t even aware of who their local candidate is, but are obligated vote or “there will be consequences such as being politically criticized or restricted”. 
 
 North Koreans also vote to be perceived as loyal citizens, pointing out that “they will be considered as rebellions otherwise. People tend to be more cautious about their behavior during election because when you’re caught on any kind of illegal activity during an election, there will be additional punishment”. 
 
 A STACKED DECK 
 
 Only one candidate may appear on the ballot in North Korean elections: the candidate endorsed by the local branch of the Workers’ Party at mass meetings across the country. It is indeed possible for voters to vote “no”, crossing out a candidates name on the ballot paper. But this act of defiance is unthinkable, requiring the voter to go a special booth to cross out the name. Since, as Yoon said, elections are when North Koreans monitor each other the closest and are tested for their loyalty, not endorsing the official candidate makes you a prime candidate for a concentration camp. 
 
 To understand how, and why North Korea votes, one must understand how the North Korean political system functions and the structure of its leadership. 
 
 “Many people don’t know that North Korea actually has three other political factions sitting in its legislature” 
 
 While it is often said that the Workers’ Party of Korea is the only party in North Korea’s one-party state, many people don’t know that North Korea actually has three other political factions sitting in its legislature, all making up the ruling “Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland”. 
 
 The first is the Korean Social Democratic Party, founded in 1945, “out of the masses’ anti-imperialist, anti-feudal aspirations and demands to eliminate the aftermath of the Japanese imperialist military rule and build a new democratic society” – it boasts 50 seats in the Supreme Assembly. 
 
 The second is the Chondoist Chongu Party, which holds 22 seats, and is a faction representing followers of the Cheondoist religious sect – an unusual synthesis of Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian thought with roots in 19th century and Korea’s peasantry. An article on the Naenara website, an information service run by the North Korea government, said its goal is to “establish harmony among all members of society”. 
 
 Another faction with seats in the Supreme Assembly is the mysterious General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, a strange group based in Tokyo with strong connections with the DPRK, even serving as the country’s de facto embassy for Japan. Five officials of the organisation sit in the Supreme Assembly. 
 
 How much power does the North Korean Supreme Assembly actually have? Not much. While it is North Korea’s primary legislative body, it largely delegated power to the much more influential Presidium, the highest organ of power in North Korea. The Presidium is designed to take legislative responsibility when the Supreme People’s Assembly is not in session – which is almost every day of the year. 
 
 Andrei Lankov, a professor of Asian Studies at Kookmin University, tells NK News that elections in the DPRK are largely the product of an electoral system transplanted from the Soviet Union during the Cold War, with the North Korean system being close to identical to the system introduced in the USSR: one candidate per ballot, endorsed by a coalition of the Communist Party and subservient “non-party” members. 
 
 As in North Korea, Lankov said, the authorities “claimed improbably high levels of participation (always above 99 percent), as well as improbably high levels of approval for official candidates (99.8 percent in 1984 Supreme Soviet election, for example)”. 
 
 “The North Korean electoral system was copied from the Soviet Union”, he continues, “but some comic (or rather tragicomic) features of the Soviet system were taken to extremes. After the 1957 elections North Korea made the system still more peculiar: they began to claim 100 percent participation rates and 100 percent approval rates. People used to joke that on the day of elections that no one would dare to die in North Korea, let alone lose consciousness”. 
 
 THE BIG DAY 
 
 A North Korean election day itself has a strict itinerary. Eligible voters are herded along to their local polling station by the head of their inminban, which has a list of all those registered in the district. 
 
 The voters then arrive in voting booths, with posters saying, “let’s all vote for the candidate”, and watched over by portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Next, Lankov said, “Voters pay a deep bow to the latter (this is of course obligatory), and then they take a ballot (every ballot has only one name of course)”. 
 
 Perhaps unsurprisingly, elections in North Korea are not seen as an opportunity for the populace to express their views, and North Koreans know next to nothing about what they actually mean. 
 
 “Elections in North Korea are not seen as an opportunity for the populace to express their views” 
 
 “The North does not teach students about the importance of the election when they were in the middle school or high school”, defector Jihoon Park told NK News. “Therefore, we can say North Korean people have no idea about the right to vote”. 
 
 With the absence of liberal conceptions of how an election works, elections in North Korea seem much more an opportunity for the regime to flex its patriotic muscles, with Yoon describing elections rallies as “propaganda advertisement”. “The government”, she said “makes people gather at a plaza and shout slogans such as ‘let’s drive out U.S. armies from South Korea’”. 
 
 While it’s impossible to know what North Koreans think while they’re in the voting booth, it’s likely that they see it either a great patriotic duty or just another mundane duty among the endless duties required of them by the state. 
 
 NORTH KOREAN…ELECTIONS? 
 
 To outside observers, the idea of a North Korean election is nothing short of bizarre. But on January 9, 2009, the Supreme People’s Assembly – the highest legislative body of the North Korean state – was dissolved, and elections to choose its lawmakers were called. 
 
 Election day came on March 8, with newspapers full of editorials compelling the people of North Korea to vote. State news agency KCNA implored North Koreans to “participate in the election of deputies as one and vote for the candidates”, remarking that voter participation would mean “the government of the DPRK will grow remarkably stronger”. 
 
 The votes were counted the next day, with turnout at 99.98 percent – and the Workers’ Party won by a landslide, winning 606 of the 687 seats, and all of the seats in the parliament going to members of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, the electoral coalition which props up the government. In district 333, where the late Kim Jong Il ran, the Dear Leader was unanimously re-elected. 
 
 “All the voters of constituency no. 333 participated in the election and voted for Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army Kim Jong Il”, KCNA reported, saying that “this is the expression of all servicepersons’ and people’s absolute support and profound trust in Kim Jong Il”. 
 
 There’s an election this year, too, on March 9, and leader of the country Kim Jong Un will stand for parliament, for the Mount Paektu constituency (the ‘divine’ mountain where his father is said to have been born). Judging from past experience, it is safe to assume that, once again, the Workers’ Party will win by a landslide. 
 
 Main picture: Eric Lafforgue ||||| The turnout rate among registered eligible voters was an equally implausible 99.7 percent. KCNA added that those who were unable to vote either live abroad or work on the high seas. 
 
 Candidates in local elections in North Korea were elected with 100 percent of the vote, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday. 
 
 Voters in North Korea are given a choice of either voting for or against a single candidate endorsed by the state in the constituency. To vote yes, they simply post a blank bal lot paper, but to vote no they have to cross out the name of the candidate. 
 
 "It's difficult to vote against the candidate because there are people watching right behind the voters," as a North Korean defector said. 
 
 The news agency said 28,116 "laborers, farmers and intellectuals" were elected to people's assemblies at provincial and city levels. ||||| Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Sunday is a national holiday in North Korea to allow people to vote in local elections 
 
 Local elections are being held in North Korea - the first since ruler Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011. 
 
 It is the joint-most corrupt country in the world with Somalia, according to Transparency International, and the same family has ruled since 1948. 
 
 So why is it holding elections? And how reliable are they? 
 
 Image copyright AFP/KCNA 
 
 What will be decided? 
 
 Local elections have been held in North Korea since 1999 - let's not forget that the country's full name is, technically, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). 
 
 Sunday's elections are to decide provincial governors, mayors and local assemblies in the country of almost 25m people. 
 
 The number of seats is determined by each district's population. 
 
 In the second provincial elections in 2003, one report said 26,650 "officials, workers, peasants and intellectuals" were elected. 
 
 Image copyright Instagram/@simonkoryo Image caption An Instagram image by Simon Cockerell, of Beijing-based North Korea tour operator Koryo Tours, shows a 2015 election poster in Pyongyang 
 
 What options do voters have? 
 
 The choice is limited - there is only one candidate on the ballot in each district, and while the selection of candidates is made by the governing coalition, they are closely overseen by Kim Jong-un's Workers' Party. 
 
 Ahead of last year's elections to name deputies for the country's assembly, The Economist reported that voting did not take place in secret, and any dissenting votes must be placed in a separate ballot box. 
 
 Abstaining or voting no are considered acts of treason. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many North Koreans will return to vote - though mainly from China, not at the South Korean border (above) 
 
 Is there more to the election than meets the eye? 
 
 In the last local election, in 2011, there was a turnout of 99.7%, with the state news agency saying those unable to vote were abroad or on the high seas. 
 
 Having such a high reported turnout has its advantages for the state, observers say, in that it acts as an informal census. 
 
 "The government checks the list of voters and if your name is not on the list, they will investigate it", one North Korean defector told the NK News website. 
 
 "It is often during election that the government finds out about defectors and people who have been missed." 
 
 If the state works out you did not vote, NK News says, "you and your family are in trouble". 
 
 Image copyright Reuters 
 
 What about Kim Jong-un? 
 
 Sunday's elections do not decide the leadership of the country. 
 
 Parliamentary elections are also held in North Korea, and they decide who rules the country - which is always a foregone conclusion. 
 
 Kim Jong-un won in the last parliamentary election in 2014 - gaining 100% of the vote in his Mount Paektu constituency.
– To say North Koreans turned out in droves to vote in state elections yesterday would be an understatement, because state media are reporting 99.7% voter turnout, Sky News reports. That's only the first eyebrow-raiser about the country's electoral process, held every four years so voters can "choose" mayors, governors, and local assemblies. North Koreans over age 17 are not only required to show, they're also told which preapproved candidates to vote for by placing already prepared ballots in the ballot boxes, CNN notes. And according to Sky, it was a "festive atmosphere," with voters "singing and dancing" as they cast votes. "All participants took part in the elections with extraordinary enthusiasm to cement the revolutionary power," the Korean Central News Agency proclaimed. Voting is simple: To vote "yes" for the candidate predetermined by Kim Jong Un's Workers' Party, participants just place their ballot in the correct box; those who vote "no" place their ballot in a separate box, all within view of elections officials, the Economist explained in 2014. Abstaining or voting no is viewed as treason, the BBC notes. The real reason for even having the vote is basically to serve as a census of sorts and to keep track of no-show defectors, NK News notes. A professor of Asian studies explains that this election system makes even more extreme the one used in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, including the ridiculously high turnout rates. "People used to joke that on the day of elections that no one would dare to die in North Korea, let alone lose consciousness," he says. As for that 0.3% who didn't vote this time? KCNA says those individuals either live abroad or work "on the high seas," per Chosun Ilbo.