The city-state of Ankh-Morpork, the main setting for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, has a novel form of democracy: “One Man, One Vote. The Patrician [the ruler] was the Man; he had the Vote.” It’s a highly efficient system with zero chance of the elected government failing to live up to the electorate’s expectations. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has developed an equally commendable model for parliamentary elections: In each constituency, the public gets to vote for the sole candidate. The system is liberal enough to accommodate dissent — one may cross out the name on the ballot. NOTA fans, please clap. Or else.

In an election held on March 15, the Workers’ Party of Korea won all 687 seats in the Supreme People’s Assembly, but only 99.93 per cent of the vote, down from 99.99 per cent in 2019. Much has been made of this drastic decline in vote share — are some brave souls raising their heads above the parapet? More likely, it’s because 99.93, in some small way, looks more convincing than 100. Other dictatorships allow the “tolerated opposition” to even bag a few seats for much the same reason.

The rituals of democracy tend to enjoy a pantomime existence even when irrelevant; the Supreme People’s Assembly is a case in point. As in Ankh-Morpork, there is really only one voter in North Korea. And, as the internet has just discovered, he is not only a “little rocket man” — as dubbed by a big rocket man — but also a girldad. He deserves 100 per cent of the vote.

© Indian Express