Military courts, called military collegiums, are appointed by the Presidium of the People's Assembly to operate at the district level. They are composed of a military judge and several military assistant judges. These courts have original jurisdiction over crimes committed by military personnel. The highest court is the Supreme Court. It has original jurisdiction in important cases that the chairman of the Supreme court takes over from the district courts. It also hears appeals from the rulings of all lower courts. Supreme Court judges are elected for four-year terms by the People's Assembly. The court consists of a chairman, deputy chairmen, and assistant judges, the exact number being determined by the Presidium of the People's Assembly. The Supreme Court is broken down into collegiums to handle different types of cases, such as penal, civil, and military. It also sits in a plenum in order to issue directives concerning legal practices, to hear appeals from decisions made by its collegium, and to study the operation of the court system in its entirety. POLITICAL DYNAMICS The Dictatorship of the Proletariat As officially defined by the Constitution, the state is a form of dictatorship of the proletariat. The power of the state constitutionally belongs to the workers and peasants, represented locally by the people's councils, which supposedly make up the political base of the state. In legislation and in official documents dealing with elections, it has been stated that the people 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.