Hardship of Parties Lost in Election

The top leader of Komeito, the coalition partner of leading Liberal Democratic Party, is going to be replaced, given a serious defeat in the general election of the House of Representatives on October 27th. Chief Representative, Keiichi Ishii, announced on October 31st that he would resign, taking responsibility of reducing seats in the election.

The leader of Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai), Nobuyuki Baba, indicated that he might not run in next presidential election of the party, receiving criticisms from party members on poor outcome of the election. The parties that reduced their seats in the general election, except the LDP and Japan Communist Party, are in trouble in post-election politics.

 

Komeito reduced its seats from 32 before the election to 24. The party won only 4 in single-seat constituencies out of 11 districts where the party fielded candidates. Ishii was defeated by a candidate of Democratic Party for the People in Saitama 14th district, resulted in losing his seat in the House of Representatives. Serious enough, the party could obtain only 5.96 million votes in proportional representation in the election, marking the lowest record.

 

Ishii announced his resignation in a board meeting of Komeito. “It was completely my responsibility that the election brought a very severe outcome,” said Ishii. He explained that the chief representative has to be a lawmaker, because the leader of the party would be accountable for negotiations over bills in the Diet. It was reported that the party considers Tetsuo Saito, current Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, for next chief representative.

 

Ishin reduced its seats, from 44 to 38, in the general election. It is recognized that an appeasing attitude of the party on the issue of political reform caused disappointment of the voters who expected to impose punishment on the LDP in the election. Ishin approved a half-way revision of Political Funds Control Act sponsored by the LDP in the last session of the Diet, showing reluctancy in abolishing the policy activities fund which all other opposition parties demanded abolishment.

 

In the internal meetings of the party after the election, some members accused failure of leaders who could not grab the good opportunity of increasing the seats of the House, followed by decline of leading coalition of the LDP and Komeito. The party decided to have a presidential election, which is considered to be held on December 1st.

 

In other words, Komeito and Ishin are victims of the slush fund scandal in the LDP. While Komeito has been criticizing LDP’s obscure management of political funds, the voters recognized the party as the major supporter for the LDP in the leading coalition. Ishin, sometimes more conservative than the LDP and taking distance from the CDP, faces a consequence of taking a close position to the LDP. Those parties look like paying a bill for past years.

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