1959 North Korean parliamentary by-election

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1959 North Korean parliamentary by-election
← 1957 19 July 1959 1962 →
59 vacated seats in the Supreme People's Assembly
  First party Second party
 
Leader Kim Il Sung Pak Sin-dok
Party Workers' Party Chondoist Chongu
Alliance Fatherland Front Fatherland Front
Seats before 150 3
Seats won 55 1
Seats after 205 4
Seat change Increase55 Increase1
Premier before election

Kim Il Sung
Workers' Party

Premier

Kim Il Sung
Workers' Party

Parliamentary

by-elections were held in North Korea on 19 July 1959 in 56 electoral districts. The reason for the by-election was an unusually high number of vacancies – more than a quarter of seats – in the Supreme People's Assembly.[1]

The vacancies were caused by purges in the aftermath of an attempted coup d'état known as the

Korean Democratic Party, eight from the Chondoist Chongu Party, three independents, two from the People's Republic Party(Inmin Konghwadang), two from the Laboring People's Party, and one from the Union of People's Masses(Gonmin People's alliance,건민회).[1]

The

Central Committee of the WPK forbade any mention about the upcoming elections in the media, probably in order to hide the true scope of the purges. Voters were simply informed that seats in their constituencies were open due to "anti-people activities" by their former delegates.[1]

55 candidates of the WPK stood for election in as many single-candidate constituencies. Pak Sin-dok, the chairman of the Chondoist Chongu Party, stood in the remaining constituency. The voting procedure had been amended slightly from the previous election which had been criticized as undemocratic abroad: In 1957 there had been a white ballot box for votes "for" and a black one for votes "against". In 1959, there was only one box. A blank ballot paper counted as a vote "for" and one with the candidate's name crossed as "against". There were cubicles at the polls, but immense social pressure prevented virtually anyone from using them.[1]

Some 1,200,000 votes were cast. Only 14 of them (about 0.001%) had been votes against the candidates. It was the last time that any voters had voted against in North Korean elections; all subsequent elections have reported 100% approval rates.[1]

Results

Party or allianceVotes%Seats
Fatherland FrontWorkers' Party of Korea10055
Chondoist Chongu Party1
Against140.00–
Total56
Source: Tertitskiy 2017

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Tertitskiy, Fyodor (19 September 2017). "1959: Secret elections in North Korea". Daily NK. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  2. ISBN 978-0-7656-3523-5
    .
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