Japan’s Ruling Party Loses Special Election in Blow To Prime Minister Kishida

Japan’s Ruling Party Loses Special Election in Blow To PM Kishida - GlobalCurrent24.com
International News On Japan’s Election – Japan’s Ruling Party Loses Special Election in Blow To PM Kishida
Japan’s governing party lost a special election, which Prime Minister Fumio Kishida regarded as a judgment on himself, months before a party leadership ballot.
Public outrage over a slush fund scandal helped the primary opposition candidate, Akiko Kamei, beat the Liberal Democratic Party’s Norimasa Nishikori by around 83,000 votes to 58,000 in Shimane prefecture, which had previously been a party stronghold.
The LDP gave up two additional seats in districts where it did not have candidates, one in Tokyo and the other in Nagasaki.
The defeats come as Kishida battles to re-establish confidence for his government amid public dissatisfaction with inflation and the scandal. The setbacks may prevent him from calling a general election before a party leadership poll in September, where he may be dismissed.
“This will be a great blow to the prime minister,” said Shigenobu Tamura, a former LDP staffer turned political pundit. He added that the premier would find it difficult to fight for a second term as party leader if support for his cabinet remained low.
A number of recent surveys have revealed public displeasure with Kishida’s handling of party members’ inability to declare a portion of their income.
Earlier this month, the premier forced two senior politicians who were considered among the worst offenders to leave from the party, while imposing lighter sanctions on scores of others. Despite a mainly positive response to his meeting with Joe Biden this month, three surveys done in April revealed that approval for Kishida’s cabinet was considerably below the 30% barrier commonly regarded as the danger zone for a Japanese prime minister.
Polls conducted by the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers revealed that support had increased by four and five percentage points, respectively, over the previous month, while the Yomiuri daily found approval constant at 25%.
Surveys reveal that unhappiness with the LDP has not translated into broad support for the CDP, despite the fact that it won all three seats this time. Support for the party remained in single digits in two of the surveys, while it increased by two percentage points to 15% in the Mainichi survey. There is no need to hold a general election for longer than one year.
Nuclear power was one of the themes that dominated the Shimane ballot, with intentions to restart Chugoku Electric Power’s Shimane No. 2 atomic facility in August. The CDP has promised to phase out nuclear power.
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