Japan: LDP admits funding to sections led by politicians implicated in financial scandals - Agenzia Nova

Oct 24, 2024

The admission comes just days before snap elections scheduled for Sunday that threaten to deprive the party and its governing ally, the Komeito Party, of a majority in the lower house.

Il Liberal Democratic Party (Pld) of the Prime Minister of Japan Shigeru Ishiba admitted yesterday that it had funded local branches led by political figures implicated in irregularities and financial scandals. The admission comes just days before early elections scheduled for Sunday that threaten to deprive the party and its governing ally, the Komeito Party, of a majority in the lower house.

According to a source within the PLD According to Kyodo news agency, the party allocated 20 million yen (about $130.000) to each of its local branches, regardless of who headed it. Hiroshi Moriyama, the LDP secretary general, insisted that the funds in question were not given to candidates running for election, but were earmarked for local branches as “activity expenses for strengthening the party.”

However, this practice It drew immediate criticism from opposition leaders, who denounced it as a way to indirectly support party members hit by recent financial scandals who were running again without official LDP support. The party had already struggled to regain public trust despite promises of reform after last year's undeclared campaign funds scandal, which culminated in the resignation of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in early October.

The coalition currently in government in Japan, composed of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Komeito Party, will struggle to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Japan's bicameral parliament, in early elections scheduled for October 27, according to the latest poll by Kyodo news agency, which surveyed 190 voters and included a range of other data to make projections about the outcome of the consultation. According to the poll, about 20 percent of the Japanese electorate is still undecided about who to support on October 27.

Each voter will be asked to fill out two ballots: one relating to the single-member majoritarian constituency of reference, and one where it will indicate a party within the proportional component of the mixed electoral system in force in the country. According to the poll, the PLD risks not obtaining enough votes to maintain the majority together with its ally Komeito in both the majoritarian and proportional components of the vote. The Constitutional Democratic Party led by former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, on the other hand, could significantly increase its consensus: the “Kyodo” poll attributes to the party 100 single-member seats, against the 60 of the last elections.

The Constitutional Democratic Party (PCD), Japan's main parliamentary opposition force, has been seeing its percentage of consensus increase in the polls for days now. A poll published on Sunday, October 20 by the "Kyodo" news agency gives the PCD 14,1 percent of the consensus in the proportional portion of the vote: less than the 22,6 percent obtained in the poll by Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party, but with a significant reduction in the gap between the two political forces, which in a week has gone from 14 to 8,5 percentage points. As for the voting districts with a first-past-the-post system, 33,2 percent of those interviewed say they want to support candidates supported by the opposition, while only 24,6 percent anticipate a vote in favor of the government's candidates: a reversal of the balance of power compared to the previous poll of October 13.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), currently in government in Japan, may not win an absolute majority of seats in the lower house in the country's early general elections scheduled for October 27. This is what polls published last week by the daily newspaper "Nikkei" and the news agency "Kyodo" predict, which predict a situation of political instability unprecedented since 2009, when the LDP had to cede government for the first and only time since World War II to the Democratic Party, then the main progressive force. The LDP needs 233 of the 465 seats in the lower house to obtain an absolute majority. As of October 9, the day of the dissolution of the house, the LDP alone held 256 seats. According to the poll conducted by the daily newspaper "Nikkei", however, the party of Prime Minister Ishiba will win only 30 percent of the 289 seats assigned through a first-past-the-post system in single-member constituencies. Of the 176 seats allocated through the proportional representation system, which divides the country into 11 regions, the PLD will likely win fewer than the 72 seats it won in 2021.

Since the 2012 elections, when it returned to power after being ousted in 2009, the LDP won a single-handed majority of seats in the lower house for four consecutive elections. According to the latest polls, candidates from the conservative party will face tight competition from candidates from other parties in as many as 100 constituencies. These races account for about 40 percent of the total. The Komeito party, the junior partner in the LDP-led coalition, could also lose ground, falling below the 32 seats it held before Ishiba dissolved the lower house on Oct. 9. Some Komeito candidates in Osaka prefecture appear to be trailing candidates from the Innovation Party of Japan, which has its main base in that part of the country.

The PLD and Komeito aim to collectively maintain their majority in the lower house, limiting the damage caused by the undeclared campaign funds scandal that has engulfed Ishiba's party since last year. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) has set a goal of breaking the LDP's majority and establishing itself as the largest party in the lower house. According to polls, the CDP appears on track to increase its number of seats from the 98 it previously held, being the frontrunner in some races in Hokkaido, Tokyo, Aichi and other areas. The Innovation Party of Japan is the frontrunner in some races in the Kansai area, including Osaka, but faces tough battles in other regions. Among other parties, the Communist Party of Japan is likely to retain its nine seats elected through proportional representation. The Democratic Party for the People is expected to gain more than the seven seats it previously held. Reiwa Shinsengumi looks set to increase its number of seats, and Sanseito is expected to win its first seat in the lower house. The Social Democratic Party will seek to retain its sole seat.

The campaign in view of the early general election scheduled for October 27 in Japan officially began on Tuesday, October 15, 12 days before the opening of the polling stations. Ishiba dissolved the House of Representatives on October 9, a few days after the installation of the government he led: through the vote, the prime minister will try to consolidate with a popular mandate the stability of the new government, which was installed only this month and is grappling with internal tensions in the Liberal Democratic Party, of which Ishiba was elected president at the end of last month. The LDP is recovering from the serious scandal of undeclared campaign funds, and Ishiba won the party presidency by a few votes: almost half of the LDP's parliamentarians are hostile to him, and in the recent election for the renewal of the leadership they supported the former minister Sanae Takaichi, an exponent of the conservative right of the party.