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In recent history, many Dictatorships have been elected with unbelievable results. For example Al Sisi in Egypt with 96,6 % of the votes, or Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi in Yemen with 99,8%.

I would like to know whether a government/president has ever been elected with 100% of the votes.

It doesn't matter whether the state is recognized or de facto exists. It doesn't need to be proven that the elections were rigged either, although information about this is welcome. I am looking for elections for the head, government or parliament of an independent state though, so not small political entities within countries where say all 15 inhabitants voted for the same guy.

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    The close vote too broad specifies: "There are either too many possible answers, or good answers would be too long for this format. (...)" I really don't see how that applies to this question.
    – Jeroen K
    Aug 28, 2015 at 14:45
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    Well...this regularly happens when someone runs unopposed. Another way of looking at this is that if the vote is north of 90% or so, the voters apparently didn't believe they were presented with much of a choice.
    – T.E.D. ♦
    Aug 28, 2015 at 14:47
  • @T.E.D. Of course, it just seems interesting that even in these obviously rigged elections the dictators prefer to allow for some opposing votes to be counted.
    – Jeroen K
    Aug 28, 2015 at 14:57
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    VERY many times, actually. In Soviet Union, In Korean People's Democratic republic etc. Many times it was 99.99% or even 99.98%, but of course it happened 100% as frequently as this.
    – Alex
    Aug 28, 2015 at 19:16
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    Are you restricting this to countries, or can we include organisations? The President of the Latter Day Saint Church is always elected with 100% show of hands. Anyone who votes against is likely to be seen as theologically suspect, and made the subject of some form of counselling.
    – WS2
    Aug 28, 2015 at 20:10

5 Answers 5

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  • 99.8 percent in Ethiopia.
  • 100 percent, with 99.97 percent turnout in North Korea. The article explains the purpose of the NK elections, which includes accounting for defectors.
  • Then there are cases where unopposed candidates run, even in generally democratic nations. Would you count that?
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    Same happened in Soviet Union. The "purpose" was "to demonstrate the unbreakable unity of the Soviet people". To demonstrate to themselves (Soviet people) and to foreigners.
    – Alex
    Aug 28, 2015 at 19:17
  • Thanks, unopposed candidates count, but if anyone votes blanco the result wouldn't be 100%
    – Jeroen K
    Aug 29, 2015 at 17:27
  • @JeroenK, that's a question of counting conventions. I would expect percentage results to be based on valid votes only, invalid votes get reported separately.
    – o.m.
    Aug 29, 2015 at 17:46
  • @JeroenK in many countries it's illegal to vote blank (or blank votes are not counted).
    – jwenting
    Jan 21, 2016 at 8:10
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    @o.m. in any elections, including unopposed one can vote "against". I think North Korea is possibly the only single case on Earth of exact 100% voting by the general population. Well, maybe except some very small nations that have some hundreds of inhabitants.
    – Anixx
    Oct 28, 2016 at 10:41
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In any election that is described as "unanimous", the winner achieved 100% of the vote. George Washington was unanimously elected twice (by the electoral college), and remains the only US president to have achieved this.

In 2002, Saddam Hussein claimed to have achieved all 11 million votes in a single-candidate presidential election. Other examples can be found at the same link, which argues that the recent Falkland Islands referendum "would seem to stand as the only example of near national unanimity in a free and fair vote", but was not 100%.

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    To share an entertaining backwards conspiracy theory I was told at the time - that in the Falkland Islands referendum, the three no votes came from three votes put in one ballot box by the authorities before the election started - just to make it less embarrassingly close to 100%.
    – user24000
    Oct 13, 2016 at 21:50
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    The Falklands vote is impressive, but the referendum that was held in Norway asking if it should dissolve the union with Sweden had 368 208 yes to 184, which is a 99.95 % of the votes.
    – andejons
    Jan 22, 2018 at 10:53
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François "Papa Doc" Duvalier was confirmed as president for a further 6 years in the 1961 Haitian presidential referendum with 100% of the vote. The result was largely seen as fraudulent, as was the result of the 1964 referendum that made him president for life in which he "only" got 99.9% of the vote.

In the 1994 Tunisian presidential election Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was elected unopposed with 100% of the valid votes, as was the case in the previous election in 1989. 0.1% of invalid votes were rejected. Similarly, Habib Bourguiba was elected unopposed as president with 100% of the vote in 1959, 1964, 1969 and 1974.

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Yes, Saddam Hussein, previously had got circa 98 % of the votes, then in his last election he improved and got 100%. No surprise both elections were rigged.I remember debating that at university and people saying it was their Iraqi culture People can be so fool in the West. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2331951.stm

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    98% isn't 100% like the question asked, though.
    – Semaphore
    Jan 21, 2016 at 6:18
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Kim Jong Un was elected to the legislature with not a single vote against, state media reported:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/10/north-korean-media-say-elections-completed-not-single-vote-cast-against-kim/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/10/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-elected-assembly-vote-against

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