This Nov. 22, footage from North Korea's Korean Central TV shows voters standing in front of registers ahead of local elections scheduled for Nov. 26. Yonhap

North Korea called for residents to cast their ballots and "fulfill their duties as members of the republic" as the reclusive regime held its first local elections featuring more than one candidate Sunday.

As of noon, 47.8 percent of voters had taken part in the local elections to pick new deputies for local assemblies of provinces, cities and counties across the nation, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. The polls opened at 10 a.m.

In what appeared to be an intention to introduce competition in the election system, some constituencies fielded two candidates for the local elections held every four years.

Under the recently revised election law, the North held a preliminary election to decide on a final candidate for new deputies of local assemblies, after reviewing the qualifications of two candidates. The final candidate was then allowed to meet with voters during their election campaigns.

"Members of the highly dignified republic should fulfill their duties," the Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, said in an editorial, saying, "People can look back at the love and consideration they received from the party and the state through election."

The newspaper said the election is an "important political opportunity" to elect deputies who are "firmly acknowledged as people who strive to find and do even one thing that is meaningful and good for the state and the people."

In a separate article, the newspaper criticized the U.S. election system as "promoted as a fair election based on freedom and equality" but is actually a "sophism aimed at covering up the true character of a rotten and ailing capitalist society."

The newspaper also claimed there are many requirements for taking part in elections in the U.S., such as race, wealth and the level of intelligence, adding election results in capitalist societies largely depend on bribing voters.

The North's local elections, where the number of seats is determined by the population of each area, are widely viewed as a formality, as the candidates are selected by the ruling party and rubber-stamped into office.

Voter turnout for the previous local elections, held in July 2019, came in at 99.98 percent. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also took part in the vote, visiting a polling place in South Hamgyong Province.

South Korea's unification ministry has said the recent change in the North's election system does not indicate the introduction of free elections in the reclusive regime and is rather seen as an attempt to manage public opinion amid prolonged economic difficulties. (Yonhap)