N Korea leader voted in polls with 99.98% turnout: KCNA

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un voted in nationwide local elections on Sunday that registered the near 100 percent turnout claimed for every ballot held in the nuclear-armed state. Given the absence of any competition among candidates, elections in the North are essentially a political ritual which, observers say, allows the authorities to claim a popular mandate while reinforcing loyalty to Kim’s regime. The 99.98 percent turnout this year was a 0.01 percent improvement on the figures registered in 2015. Only those overseas “on foreign tour or working in oceans” were unable to vote, the North’s state-run agency KCNA reported Sunday, adding that even “voters troubled with aging or illness cast their ballots into mobile ballot boxes”.