Calling the thing that just happened in North Korea an "election" is a bit of a stretch. What's the name for an event where people cram pre-marked ballots into a box and then the guys ruling the country continue ruling it? Because that happened.
According to CNN, "voting" is mandatory for everyone older than 17, and "failing to take advantage of the opportunity to show support for the government is tantamount to treason."
Kim himself wasn't up for a vote - these were local elections, deciding on governors, mayors and local assemblies. (Please ignore the words "vote," "election" and "deciding" in previous sentence.)
Per the BBC, each ballot contains only one candidate, pre-chosen by Kim's Worker's Party, and voting doesn't take place in private - if you vote against the Party (somehow) you have to file a separate ballot in a different box, in public. That's probably not a good idea.
99.7 percent of eligible citizens voted in the election (please ignore all nouns and verbs in previous sentence), and cemented the Worker's Party as North Korea's first, last and everything.
Democracy in action, folks.
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