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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Search Search: NKoreans vote in election seen as clue to succession AFP - Monday, March 9 SEOUL (AFP) - - North Koreans voted on Sunday in elections for a new parliament which analysts say could pave the way for an eventual transition of power in the impoverished communist nation. ADVERTISEMENT The vote is also being closely monitored around the world for clues as to whether the state, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006, will soften its stance in international negotiations and dismantle its nuclear arsenal. Voting to the rubber-stamp parliament did not take place in 2008 when its five-year term expired amid fevered speculation over the health of reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il . The North's television showed soldiers in uniform using both hands to politely raise and drop a ballot into a box at a Pyongyang polling station where Kim was standing. It said they were "voting for" Kim. Kim himself "voted for" an army officer at a different district in Pyongyang, said the official Korean Central News Agency which reported a 93.1 percent turnout of registered voters at 2:00pm (0500 GMT). Polling stations stayed open from 9:00am to 6:00pm, with election results likely to be announced Monday, Seoul officials said. "All the voters are going to the polls to consolidate the people's power as firm as a rock," the agency said, quoting the Central Election Commission. "I am filled with joy to think that I am able to contribute to the strengthening of the revolutionary sovereign power through my vote," Park Mi-Hyang, a 22-year-old worker in Pyongyang, told Kyodo news agency. Seoul and Washington say Kim Jong-Il has recovered well from a stroke he suffered in August and is in control, but his health and age have inevitably led to talk abroad about who will succeed him. He inherited power from his father, Kim Il-Sung, in the communist world's only dynastic succession. But it is unclear whether he wants one of his three sons to succeed him -- and if so, which one. "Kim Jong-Il will turn 72 when the next election comes, and given his ageing, it is likely that an idea about a post-Kim era will be reflected in the elections this time," Kim Yong-Hyun, a North Korea expert and professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, told AFP. Seoul's Yonhap news agency has said the leader has named his youngest son, Jong-Un, as his successor and that the 25-year-old is running in the election. The outcome is not in doubt -- candidates are picked by the government or ruling party, and only one stands in each district. The incoming assembly will re-elect Kim, 67, who is standing in a military district, as chairman of the National Defence Commission. The commission, which supervises the 1.2 million-strong military, is the North's most powerful organ, and its new line-up will be seen as an indicator of who is moving up the ladder of power and influence. A new parliament is often the prelude to a cabinet reshuffle. Assembly members commonly hold key posts in the ruling communist party as well as in the military and government, Seoul officials say. Dongguk University's Kim said the outcome of the election would not necessarily manifest a father-to-son succession but could see "a generation change" in the top ranks. "The North will likely bring in the young to replace the elderly with a future possible power transition in mind," he said, adding Pyongyang's power elite was overhauled in the 1998 and 2003 polls. Kim Jong-Il last month called the elections "significant" in terms of reviving the economy by 2012, the 100th anniversary of the birth of his father, the nation's founding president. Seoul's state-backed Institute for National Security Strategy says it expects the North to use the polls to promote people with specialist knowledge in an attempt to save the economy. The private Institute for Far Eastern Studies, for its part, predicts Kim "will further strengthen his grasp on the regime" through the election. In the previous 2003 polls, state media boasted of a 99.9 percent voter turnout and 100 percent support for every candidate. 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