Tokyo: Former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi on Monday announced his candidacy in the Japanese ruling party's upcoming leadership election, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi is also planning to throw his hat in the ring.
According to Philippines News Agency, in addition to Motegi, 69, and Hayashi, 64, former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, 64, is also mulling a possible bid. The LDP is set to hold an extraordinary leadership election to fill the vacancy that will be left by the resignation of the current party president, Shigeru Ishiba, the country's prime minister. He announced on Sunday that he would step down.
The party is expected to hold the election on Oct. 4, with a full-scale format involving rank-and-file party members and supporters nationwide in addition to member lawmakers. Details of the election format will be decided Tuesday. "Our party is in the biggest crisis since its founding," Motegi told reporters. "We must form a united front and create a new LDP as soon as possible."
Motegi, who is the first to announce plans to run in the election, said he is "convinced" that he will be able to collect the 20 signatures from party lawmakers necessary to file his candidacy. Hayashi conveyed his intention to run in the election to former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who had led a now-defunct LDP faction to which the chief cabinet secretary had belonged to.
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, 50, said on television that he will consider a possible candidacy with his colleagues, while Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato, 69, told reporters in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, that he will thoroughly mull a bid. Focus is on whether Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, will seek the leadership post. He stopped short of explicitly commenting on a possible bid when asked by reporters at the agriculture ministry, only saying that he will consider what he can do to unite the party.
The LDP has two methods for holding an extraordinary presidential election when the party presidency is vacated during the term. Under its rules, the party basically picks a president through a full-scale voting process involving rank-and-file party members and supporters nationwide, in addition to the party's lawmakers. But in an especially urgent situation, an LDP president can be elected through voting by member lawmakers and representatives from the 47 prefectural branches.
LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama and other party executives agreed Monday that a full-scale race should be held. They determined that allowing broad participation is desirable, after the party pledged drastic reform as part of a review of its poor showing in the July House of Councillors election.
