Kim Jong-un likely to be chosen as TIME’s new “Person of the Year”

2012 seems to be a good year for Kim Jong-un, beside succeeding his late father, Kim Jung-il, in ruling North Korea, he appeared on TIME magazine’s cover before and even been named “sexist man alive” although the later one was a prank done by satirical newspaper “The Onion”, and some Chinese media believed the news.

Kim Jong-un managed to get the higher percent of votes on the “Person of the Year” poll, and it ended with him getting almost 6 million votes. That’s of course an achievement for him, if we take into consideration that he made his first public appearance ever in 2010.

Of course getting the highest percent of votes on the poll, doesn’t mean that he’s becoming TIME’s new person of the year. The character is chosen by editors, and this reader’s poll is only one way to narrow down their candidates.

The wining character would be announced on 19 December, and as TIME executive editor Radhika Jones stated in an interview, they don’t choose the character depending solely on the poll, “but it’s fun to see how our favorite candidates end up on the list”.

Others like Jon Stewart, undocumented immigrants, Gold-medalist Gaby Douglas, and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi managed to be in the top 10 list. It’s worthy to mention that some online forums and boards like “4Chan” have collected mass numbers of voters, and that’s one main reason how North Korea’s Kim Jong-un ended up on top.

Egyptian President Morsi also managed to get the highest votes but in a totally different category. He was the highest person to be voted “no way,” as in no way this person would be person of the year. Despite this bad result, he being on the list triggered too much attention because of his previous interview and cover story with TIME.

Other notable people who were on the poll and sadly didn’t manage to make it to the top 10 list, Malala Yousefzai, the Pakistani girl and advocate for girls’ rights in learning who was shot by Taliban’s gunman because of her activity, placed 15^th. Also Korean singer Psy who is famous for the worldwide hit “Gangnam Style” placed 17^th.