Almost all North Koreans cast their ballots Sunday in a pre-determined election for a rubber-stamp parliament - an exercise that doubles as a national head count and may offer clues to power shifts in Pyongyang. All registered voters - except those who are currently abroad - took part in the nation-wide elections for members of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), the state-run KCNA news agency said. Those who are ill or infirm and cannot travel to polling stations are casting votes at special "mobile ballot boxes," it said.
"Overjoyed" voters rushed to polling stations across the country from early in the morning, it claimed, adding many danced and played music on the street in praise of the leader, Kim Jong-Un. The North's state TV showed hundreds of people across the country clad in brightly-coloured traditional dresses dancing in circles on the street. Kim also cast his vote along with high-ranking army and party cadres. Apart from the physical casting of votes, there is nothing democratic about the ballot.