Seoul [South Korea], March 18 (ANI): In North Korea’s 2026 parliamentary elections, Kim Jong Un claimed a landslide victory as the Workers’ Party of Korea and its coalition partners reportedly won 99.93 per cent of the vote and every seat, Yonhap News Agency said, citing state media.
With a reported turnout of 99.99 per cent, voting took place on March 15 to select deputies to the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly.
Pyongyang is set to convene the assembly’s inaugural session to vote on state leadership and consider a major revision to the constitution. The session follows last month’s Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the assembly will formally address electing the president of State Affairs of the DPRK and revising and supplementing the Socialist Constitution. A key issue observers will watch is whether the constitution will explicitly define the two Koreas as hostile countries to one another. Analysts are also waiting to see if Kim will announce new directions for external relations.
The session is widely expected to re-elect Kim as supreme leader and head of the State Affairs Commission. While the assembly is often described as a rubber-stamp parliament, it remains the formal body that legalizes decisions made by party leadership.
Yonhap noted a sweeping personnel change: more than 70 per cent of deputies were replaced from the previous term, a reshuffle seen by experts as further consolidating Kim’s authority. Among the 687 confirmed deputies is Jo Yong-won, a close aide to Kim, who is favored to become chairman of the assembly’s standing committee. Former chairman Choe Ryong-hae, removed during the recent party congress, does not appear on the new list.
New deputies include Kim Yo-jong and Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. State media described the representatives as political activists drawn from workers, farmers, and officials charged with carrying out the party’s strategic mission.
KCNA reported that 0.07 per cent of voters cast ballots against the candidates. That inclusion of opposing votes is portrayed as evidence of a right to object, though North Korean elections are widely regarded as a non-secret formality. (ANI)
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