Japan's opposition wins mayoral vote
JAPAN: Japan's main opposition party won a closely-watched mayoral
poll at the weekend, dealing a fresh blow to Prime Minister Taro Aso as
he battles to win over voters ahead of a general election.
Aso, reeling from a cabinet aide's resignation last week and
back-to-back mayoral election losses in May and June, has to call a vote
by September, with opinion polls suggesting his Liberal Democratic Party
is heading for defeat.
Sunday's vote in Chiba City, just east of Tokyo, came just two days
after Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kunio Hatoyama
stepped down Friday over a row related to the privatisation of Japan's
huge postal service.
Hatoyama was a long-time Aso ally who had led his election campaign
in the ruling party's leadership race last September.
The latest election win for the main opposition Democratic Party had
"deepened a sense of crisis" in the ruling coalition ahead of the
general election, Jiji Press news agency said.
The latest opinion poll, conducted by the Mainichi daily over the
weekend, showed voter support for the Aso government has sunk to 19
percent from 24 percent in mid-May.
The Democratic Party hailed Sunday's election win, in which its
candidate Toshihito Kumagai, 31, also backed by the opposition Social
Democratic Party, scored a landslide win.
The local election board said Kumagai beat former deputy mayor of
Chiba, Kojiro Hayashi, 63, backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party
and its junior coalition partner New Komeito, by 170,629 votes to
117,560.
"The Democratic Party will certainly topple the government in the
general election to be held soon," Katsuya Okada, secretary-general of
the resurgent party said in a statement after exit polls showed the
party was set to win. The new mayor, Kumagai, told supporters: "I
believe this shows voters' will to change politics that have remained
unchanged until now."
The opposition won mayoral elections in two other major cities in
April and May. An election for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly is set
for July.
Tokyo, Monday, AFP |
