Not sure how it was in the DDR, but in Moscow it was only one candidate people had to vote for. The info about the candidate was publicly available, but there was no choice. Then people had performed their "civic duty" to vote for that candidate and so the elections were done. The year 1986 (if I remember correctly) was the first year there were several candidates (still from the Communist Party, of course), so people had a choice. The election was heatly debated among the old ladies who sat near the building entrance... In either case, the elections were actually to the municipal division of the Communist Party or the delegates to the next caucus of the Communist Party, so they could unanimously elect higher leaders. There was no other party and there were no other elections held for the public. Why to bother with multiple parties? The Communist Party was the people's party, so it represented the desires and wishes of the ordinary people. You got the picture.