ple not only enjoy freedom of choice concerning
candidates but also have the right to supervise the work of their
elected representatives and the right of recall if they are
dissatisfied. In practice, such people's democracy does not exist, and
the dictatorship of the proletariat--that is, the rule of the people
over themselves--is a facade behind which the real dictatorship of the
Party elite operates.
The Constitution provides for direct, secret vote to elect
representatives to all governmental bodies, from the people's councils
in villages to the highest organ of the state, the People's Assembly.
The voters themselves do nothing on their part to be registered in the
electoral lists. These lists are drawn up for every type of election by
the people's councils and are supposed to include all citizens who reach
age eighteen on or before the day of the elections.
The democratic character of these elections is allegedly guaranteed by
the procedure or right for nominating candidates. This right legally
belongs to the Party, the Democratic Front, trade unions, and social
organizations and is exercised by the central organs of these
organizations and their organs in the districts. Nominations, with Party
approval, also are made at the general meetings of workers and employees
in the enterprises and state farms, of soldiers in their detachments,
and of peasants in their agricultural collectives or villages.
All meetings for the selection of candidates are held under the auspices
of the Democratic Front, in whose name all the candidates are presented
for election. The only legal requirement of a candidate is that he enjoy
the right to election, that the organization which proposes him confirm
its intention in writing, and that he accept his candidacy for that of
the Assembly was a "vivid expression of the socialist democ-him. In
practice, all candidates are preselected, and the meetings simply
confirm the Party choice.
Political power, according to official documents, is thus vested in the
broad masses who, through various organizations to which they belong,
choose the candidates to be elected to all state organs, including the
people's courts. The candidate who receives one more vote than half the
number of voters registered in the electoral zone is proclaimed the
winner and becomes, in theory, the agent representing the sovereignty of
the people.
The highest organ of state power, according to official dogma, is the
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