Otaru, City in Hokkaido, Japan

Tokyo, Sep 14 Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Monday started a presidential election to pick the successor of outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced his resignation last month due to health issues.At a joint plenary meeting, LDP party members from both houses of Japan's bicameral parliament and delegates from local chapters are voting to elect the party's new leader, reports Xinhua news agency.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 results are expected to be announced at around 3.30 p.m. (local time).The race is between Yoshihide Suga, 71, Japan's top government spokesperson and Chief Cabinet Secretary, Shigeru Ishiba, 63, a former Defence Minister, and Fumio Kishida, 63, the LDP's policy chief.The winner of the election is virtually assured of becoming the next Prime Minister owing to LDP's dominance in parliament.The new Prime Minister will be named at an extraordinary Diet session to on Wednesday.Suga, having garnered the support of five of the seven major LDP factions, has a comfortable lead on the other two contenders.Under normal circumstances, the top leader of the LDP would be chosen with Diet members belonging to the party and rank-and-file members holding 394 votes each.However, due to Abe's resignation in the middle of his term and the Covid-19 pandemic, the LDP decided to hold an abridged version of presidential election to simplify the process and to avoid a political vacuum.On August 28, Abe, Japan's longest serving Prime Minister, abruptly announced his intent to resign citing his chronic illness, but said he would remain in power until a successor was chosen.In his announcement, the premier said that he needed to be treated for a flare-up of his intestinal disease that led his first one-year stint to end abruptly in 2007.After stepping down in 2007 over a medical issue, he returned to the top job in 2012 after a landslide election win in the Lower House.Abe, prior to his health condition, was set to spend one more year at the helm.( With inputs from IANS )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

OtaruFOLLOW

Otaru, Latest News

Tokyo, Sep 16 Yoshihide Suga, the new leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was elected as the ... ...

With Yoshihide Suga set to assume office as Japan's new Prime Minister, the entire Cabinet of former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe submitted their resignation on Wednesday. ...

Tokyo, Sep 15 Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who has replaced outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as the ... ...

Equity benchmark indices traded higher with narrow gains during early hours on Tuesday amid positive sentiment across global markets. ...

Indian Army Chief MM Naravane and Japan Ground Self Defense Force (JGSDF), Chief of Staff General, Goro Yuasa, on Monday, had a telephonic discussion during which they agreed to advance defence cooperation and exchanges between the two countries to r ...

Equity benchmark indices closed lower on Monday after choppy trading as traders booked profit after an initial spurt in the morning session. ...

Tokyo, Sep 14 Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was on Monday elected as the new leader of ... ...

Tokyo, Sep 14 Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Monday started a presidential election to pick the ... ...