North Korea Reports Opposition Votes in Local Elections for the First Time in Decades

North Korea announced on Tuesday that there were votes against candidates in the recent local elections, marking the first time in decades that the regime has reported opposing votes. The elections saw 99.63 percent voter turnout, with 99.91 percent of the voters supporting candidates for provincial people’s assemblies and 99.87 percent supporting candidates for city and county people’s assemblies.

Notably, 0.09 percent voted against provincial assembly candidates, and 0.13 percent voted against city and county assembly candidates. This rare revelation of opposing votes might be an attempt to show democratic processes following the revision of the election law.