Kulturkampf

[benji]

Sometimes I wonder why a country like North Korea even bothers pretending that they have a free vote but turns out there's people incredibly eager to suck up any of the whitewashing

While North Korea is unique in many ways for other countries there are a couple acknowledged reasons for entirely phony elections in regimes that otherwise have no reason for them:
1. Some foreign aid is conditioned such that if you have entirely false elections as long as you allow legal opposition that you'll present fake results for and oppress, you qualify for election requirements for the aid.
2. The people don't necessarily know how phony they are, it helps the regime to say "see 99% of the people agree!" This saps dissent and creates paranoia against opposition. Most regimes aren't smart and the leaders are egomaniacs so they rig their elections for such absurd results rather than faking like say 85% like Putin does which creates greater plausibility towards the actual lack of opposition.
3. On some amusing occasions, the leader isn't aware or in denial that the elections are entirely fraudulent. There is some evidence that Saddam started to believe his own press for example. Gaddafi was similarly said to have been blindsided by his lack of support among the population.