Well what do you know: Xi Jinping was elected China’s next president in a ceremony Thursday in Beijing. This was not particularly surprising, as Xi has been China’s top leader since November, and the Communist Party actually chose him for the job back in 2007.

So the “election” was just a formality, but it was still an interesting one, a glimpse into how the Chinese Communist Party runs itself and the image it wants to project to its people. So here, in numbers, is what Deng Xiaoping might call “democracy with Chinese characteristics.”

2956 – Number of votes cast in China’s presidential election

2952 – Number of votes cast for Xi Jinping

1 – Number of votes cast against Xi (plus 3 abstentions)

0.0002156819 percent – Share of the Chinese population granted the franchise in this election

99.86 percent – Xi’s share of the vote

97.62 percent – Bashar al-Assad’s reported share in the 2007 Syrian presidential election

99.98 percent – Kim Jong Il’s share in the 2009 North Korean election

20 – Number of black Audi sedans, the unofficial vehicle of the Chinese Communist Party, visible through a single window at the ceremony