North Korean parliamentary elections begin

Pyongyang, March 9:

started on Sunday morning throughout

to choose members of the top legislature of the country.

Eligible voters went to polling stations in different electoral districts to cast their votes for members of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), which will serve a five-year term in accordance with the North Korean Constitution, Xinhua reported.

Voting began at 9 a.m. and was expected to last nine hours. Wearing traditional dresses or suits, people gathered at electoral districts in Pyongyang, dancing and singing in festive mood.

North Korea's top leader Kim Jong Un has registered at Constituency No. 111 as a candidate in the elections. It is the first election for the SPA under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who took power in December 2011 following the death of his father Kim Jong Il.

The current deputies of the SPA, the highest organ of state power, were elected in March 2009.

The SPA has the power to adopt, amend or supplement enactments to the constitution, determine state policy and budgets, and adjust the country's leadership.

IANS