The leader of Japan’s main opposition force, the Democratic Party, will propose that the party stand no candidates in next month’s Lower House election, an
The leader of Japan’s main opposition force, the Democratic Party, will propose that the party stand no candidates in next month’s Lower House election, and let its members run under the banner of the new party led by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, sources said Wednesday.
Seiji Maehara himself intends to stand as an independent in the Oct. 22 House of Representatives election, the sources said. He is set to formally propose the idea to party lawmakers on Thursday.
The move may end up splitting up the Democratic Party, which has been facing declining public support and an exodus of lawmakers to Koike’s camp.
The establishment this week of Kibo no To (Party of Hope) by Tokyo’s popular governor has shaken up Japan’s political scene just ahead of the Lower House race. Like the Democratic Party, the new “reform-minded conservative party” aims to take seats from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan throughout most of the postwar era.
Abe is expected to dissolve the Lower House on Thursday, with official election campaigning to start on Oct. 10.
Maehara’s decision apparently reflects concerns that the fielding of rival candidates by both parties would split, and therefore weaken, the anti-LDP vote. It also gives him a way out of having to manage fractures within the Democratic Party.
“We will bring an end to the Abe administration, whatever we have to come up with,” Maehara said Wednesday at a party-related meeting in Sendai.
“Opposition parties can’t win elections when they’re all split up,” he said.
