TOKYO, Sept 14 (NNN-NHK) – The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) presidential election, which will also see the winner selected as Japan’s next prime minister, due to the party’s parliamentary dominance, entered the home stretch yesterday.
The three candidates who are vying to be Abe’s successor are Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, 71, who has been Abe’s right-hand man for almost eight years, Shigeru Ishiba, 63, a former defence minister and a rare critic of Abe within the LDP, and Fumio Kishida, 63, a former foreign minister, who serves as the LDP’s policy chief.
Suga, Japan’s top government spokesperson, seemingly dominated the election race, as the “continuity candidate,” pledging to prioritise Abe’s continued offensive against the pandemic, while vowing to stick to the prime minister’s “Abenomics” economic policy, mix of drastic monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and structural reforms.
Having secured the backing of five of LDP’s seven major factions, a hefty number of unaffiliated lawmakers, and thus the majority of the 394 lawmakers, who will cast their ballots today, it would seem likely Suga will be a shoo-in to take the top post.
While this might be the case, political observers pointed out that, were Suga to win a landslide victory today, the number of votes secured by Ishiba and Kishida will still be of importance, as they will act as a harbinger of sentiment for the next presidential election, to be held by the end of Sept next year, when Abe’s current term ends.
All three candidates’ policy pledges overlap and contrast to a degree, with all three of them keen to bolster the economy and underpin its recovery from the pandemic.
Kishida and Ishiba, however, argued that more needs to be done, aside from merely following, what they have intimated, an anachronistic “Abenomics” policy initiative, to put the world’s third largest, yet recession-hit economy on a sustainable growth track and ensure an earning environment that is more equitable for all.
Suga, meanwhile, hinted that, another tax hike might be on the cards, a point his competitors have kept quiet on, in the latest debates.
Ishiba maintained his view that, Asian nations should create their own version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, to deepen security cooperation, an idea that Suga warned could alienate certain countries Japan is trying to deepen ties with.
Rumours emanating from LDP bigwigs have been swirling that, no sooner has the new leader been selected, a snap election could come.
Deputy Prime Minister, Taro Aso, who serves concurrently as finance minister, said that the next administration would likely face criticism for being formed without a public mandate.
“If so, I feel like the new prime minister is going to dissolve the lower house,” Aso, who controls one of the largest factions in the LDP, which is backing Suga, said recently.
Defence Minister, Taro Kono, also a member of Aso’s faction, made similar remarks, saying that he expects a general election in Oct.
Suga, for his part, opted not to say whether he would dissolve the lower house for a snap election, if he were to become the nation’s leader. “What the people want is to keep a balance between preventing further infections of the virus and promoting economic activities,” said Suga.
Suga sidestepped the question, when asked, on an NHK programme, along with his two rivals, and resolutely stuck to his line that his priorities remain tackling the virus and boosting the economy.
As for Abe, he felt, he could not fulfil his mandate as prime minister owing to his ill health, and in stepping down, paved the way for an election race to select LDP’s new leader, who, by virtue of the ruling party’s majority influence in parliament, will also succeed him.
Due to Abe stepping down mid-term, the LDP’s General Council decided it would be prudent to hold a scaled-down presidential election, with voting applicable only to lawmakers and delegates from the party’s local chapters, with rank-and-file members excluded form the process.
The abridged election process was decided by the council to simplify the process and to avoid a political vacuum, particularly as the government continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the scaled-down vote, 394 Diet members will cast ballots and a total of 141 votes will be cast by three delegates each from the country’s 47 prefectural chapters.
The party’s new leader will be elected at a joint plenary meeting of LDP party members from both houses of Japan’s bicameral parliament, to be at a Tokyo hotel, from 2:00 p.m. local time today, party officials said.
The LDP and the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), agreed to convene an extraordinary Diet session and choose the new prime minister on Sept 16.– NNN-NHK
