N. Korea’s Kim Jong-un votes in local polls with ‘99.98% turnout’

TIL Desk/World/Seoul/ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un voted in nationwide local elections that registered an almost 100 per cent turnout rate, the state media reported on Monday. The elections that took place on Sunday look to project democratic legitimacy, even though watchdogs say candidates were preselected and ran unopposed.

Kim visited a polling station in South Hamgyong Province “to take part in the election of deputies to the provincial, city and county people”s assemblies”. Accompanied by senior officials, he encouraged candidates “to become the faithful servants of the people by fulfilling their duties so as to live up to the anticipation of the people”.

On Sunday, the North”s Central Election Guidance Committee put the figure of those who voted at 99.98 per cent, with the only ones not voting away on “foreign tour or working in oceans”, the state media outlet reported. Even “voters troubled with ageing or illness cast their ballots into mobile ballot boxes”, it said. The figure was an improvement of 0.01 per cent on the last local elections in 2015.