North Koreans have gone to the polls for an election in which there could be only one winner
However every five years it holds an election for the rubber stamp legislature, known as the Supreme People's Assembly.
There is a pencil in the panelled voting booths for anyone who might wish to register dissent by crossing out a candidate's name. But no one does. Participation in the election was a citizen's obligation, he said, "and there are no people who reject a candidate".Voters "should cast approval ballots with their loyalty to the party and the leader, absolute support to the DPRK government and the will to share their destiny with socialism to the last", it said.
Soviet-style Communist states had a long tradition of holding general elections, he said, even if the ruling party ignored its own rules about holding regular congresses - something the North skipped for more than 30 years."The early Communists sincerely believed that they were producing a democracy the world had never seen. So they needed elections and it became a very important part of self-legitimisation.
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