Kim Jong Il was recently “re-elected” with 100% of the vote and 100% of the people voting
A few years ago, Saddam Hussein was re-elected in a similiar fashion
Given that men like these have total control over their country and presumably care little of their legitimacy, real or not, why do they bother even holding these sham elections? Seems like a waste of time and money in their country that would only foster resentment within it and ridicule without it.
I’d guess to stroke their egos and/or to say to the world “Hey look, I am legitimate, the people want me here.”
Legitimation has a big thing to do with it. Nobody wants to be the bad guy, neither the dictator nor the citizens. Contrary to what Hollywood Evil does, most dictators aren’t cackling merrily when they eat little babies, they sincerely believe (in a twisted way of course) that by being a strict father for their too-childish yet underlings, or the doctor who cuts out the cancer or the hard hand that’s necessary to protect those weak and dumb people from falling prey to tempations and weaknesses outside … they are doing the very best that’s possible under these difficult circumstances for their country and their people, and maybe even for the rest of the world.
It’s not their fault that the other countries don’t understand that in this desperate battle, gloves must come off and some niceties are too luxurious to be pursued, and that we can’t have all that squabbling of power-hungry, self-interest-serving politicans, but need one decider instead…
But they want to be assured that their people at least still understand their epic mission and battle and are behind them. And they want to show the rest of the world what a little paradiese their country already is, thanks to their drastic but necessary measures.
And it reduces a bit the pressure on them - you wanted elections? Well I had elections, what more do you want!
There’s a term that came up a couple of years ago to describe the South American countries - “democracy light” - they held elections, but without the framework necessary for a proper democratic society, because the US Admin had announced they would only trade with democracies (I assume China was a different case, as always). So the countries put on a nice window dressing to satisfy the show, and everything went on as usual.
In order for a dictator to have total control, he needs a constituency. So actually legitimacy is very important.
As is fear. Getting people to vote against their beliefs is a useful exercise in intimidation. Getting people to capitulate and not really have convictions is even better. And having a list of your naive or foolish opponents helps as well.
At any rate, don’t think that dictators operate on the Dr. Doom model: power is never really absolute in an individual, only a group or cabal.
But if you’re going to be making up numbers, why 100%? That’s blatently transparently a lie. Why not make it, say, 70% support with 75% of the electorate voting? That’s still enough that over 50% of the country must have voted for you, but it’s just barely actually plausible for a very popular leader.
Was there anyone else running against on the ballot?
There is a big grey area as to what a “legitimate democratic process” is. Out and out mock elections like the ones in the OP are rarer nowadays. More common is a situation like that in Eygpt where there are legitimate opposition parties, but the entire system is set up in such a way as to make sure they don’t stand a snowballs chance in hell of being competitive.
It ain’t totalitarianism if it ain’t total.