Elections North Korean style

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un laughing with female pilots as he
inspects the Korean People's Army (KPA) Air and Anti-Air Force Unit

North Koreans must trudge off to the polls on Sunday. They have to elect members for the Supreme People's Assembly. They don't choose between candidates as there is only one per district. The vote is merely Yes or No and guess which is the more advisable.

As the SPA is purely a rubber-stamp assembly, these elections seem to be aimed at checking the entire population via periodic mass mobilisations. Jerking the strings to see which ones are broken I suppose. It also provides outsiders with clues as to who is favoured by the regime and who is not.

From National Post :-

“When officials are not renominated, this points to them falling out of favour,” said Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in South Korea. “The sudden appearance of a new person points to the opposite.”

“To the best of my knowledge,” he said, “not a single SPA member has ever voted against a bill or motion introduced by the government.”