North Korea: Remarkable 99.97% turnout recorded in elections

North Korea's elections saw a remarkable turnout with an estimated 99.97% voter turnout on 19 July, according to the country's state media.

Nearly all of the nation's 24.9 million citizens reportedly voted, including the elderly, except for those not in the country.

"All participants took part in the elections with extraordinary enthusiasm to cement the revolutionary power through the elections of deputies to the local people's assemblies," said the capital, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.

Supreme leader Kim Jong-Un was also seen casting his vote with mobile ballot boxes spread across the capital, reported Sky News.

Reports also emerged of voters "singing and dancing" as they made their way to vote.

The elections were the first since Kim Jong-un came to power.

Local elections are held every four years since 1999. Only one candidate was presented on the ballot papers and action is taken against any dissenting voters with abstention from voting usually considered treason.

The entire process, which is overseen by Kim Jong-Un's Workers' Party is criticised as being an act by the nation to appear democratic.

"It's comical when they claim to have 100 per cent turnout because it defies reality. What about people incapacitated in hospital? Or on a ship at sea?" said Daniel Pinkston, a North Korean expert with Seoul-based The International Crisis Group.

"It is a method of social control that enables the authorities there to confirm the whereabouts of its citizens and to identify any who are not where they are meant to be."