North Korea speeds up next week's parliamentary elections preparations
Published: 11 Mar. 2026, 18:44
![In this image provided by the Korean Central News Agency, young people and students march with torches through Pyongyang on March 10. [YONHAP]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/03/11/8e00e83d-4667-427d-92fd-198b55dfdaf7.jpg)
In this image provided by the Korean Central News Agency, young people and students march with torches through Pyongyang on March 10. [YONHAP]
North Korea has been speeding up its preparations for next week's parliamentary elections by setting up election committees at various levels and reviewing the qualifications of candidates for deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), according to state media on Wednesday.
North Korea will elect deputies to the 15th SPA on Sunday as a follow-up step to last month's key party congress. North Korea typically holds parliamentary elections every five years, but the upcoming vote will mark the first since 2019.
North Korea said it has set up election committees at the provincial, city, county and military levels nationwide to prepare for the upcoming elections, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The North also appears to be holding what resembles a primary to pick a single candidate in each constituency, as it reported meetings are being held to review the qualifications of deputy candidates nationwide.
"Officials who have earned high public trust, workers, farmers and people from all walks of life, as well as soldiers, have been registering as candidates for assembly deputies," the KCNA said.
North Korea said all residents with the suffrage right in each constituency have been registered in a voters' list.
While voters are required to place the ballot in the ballot box if they approve of a candidate, they must draw a line through the candidate's name if they oppose, a process that effectively makes the voting non-secret.
The SPA is the highest organ of state power under the North's constitution, but it actually only rubber-stamps decisions by the ruling Workers' Party.
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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