The North Korean government reported votes opposed to government-selected candidates in local elections for the first time in decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Supreme leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s regime said Tuesday that just under 1% of the voting population cast a ballot against the selected candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It marks the first time the government has acknowledged votes against the Workers\u2019 Party since 1956.\u00a0<\/p>\n
State-operated media outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported 0.09% of voters submitted ballots against the party\u2019s selected candidates for provincial assembly seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
KCNA also reported that 0.13% of voters voted against the ruling party in the city and county people\u2019s assemblies.<\/p>\n
Voter turnout across the communist hermit nation was reported at 99.63%.<\/p>\n
It was the first election since the nation implemented reforms in August of this year allowing multiple candidates.<\/p>\n
\u2018The electoral reforms may serve dual purposes: projecting an image of a forward-looking North Korea to the outside world while concurrently consolidating internal governance structures,\u2019 the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The organization continued, \u2018The introduction of multiple candidates in North Korea\u2019s local elections, while offering more choice on the surface, does not fundamentally alter the power dynamics within the ruling party.\u2019<\/p>\n
Election data reported by the ruling Workers\u2019 Party is considered utterly unreliable as supreme leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s government maintains total control over the population and violently suppresses opposition.<\/p>\n
The Kim family has fostered a secular religion around their dynasty since the country\u2019s government was formed in 1948.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The nation operates under a uniquely manipulated form of communist political philosophy known as \u2018juche\u2019 that places all functional power in the hands of a \u2018supreme leader.\u2019<\/p>\n
State-controlled media and government communications bolster the Kim family\u2019s status as virtual demigods, attributing them with unparalleled intelligence and a wide variety of skills.<\/p>\n\n
The North Korean government reported votes opposed to government-selected candidates in local elections for the first time in decades.\u00a0 Supreme leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s regime said Tuesday that just under 1% of the voting population cast a ballot against the selected candidates.\u00a0 It marks the first time the government has acknowledged votes against the Workers\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}