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The Yomiuri Shimbun Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a House of Representatives plenary session Monday.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
15:13 JST, October 8, 2024
The prefectural chapters of most Liberal Democratic Party members involved in the recent political funds scandal have applied to the party headquarters for their endorsement as official party candidates for the upcoming House of Representatives election, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba plans to dissolve the lower house Wednesday. As the LDP president, Ishiba will decide who will be endorsed, taking into account the wishes of their home constituencies and other factors.
“It is the party president who has the authority to make the final decision on who receives an endorsement,” Ishiba said Monday, answering a question at a plenary session of the lower house. Regarding LDP lawmakers who failed to properly enter necessary information in their political funds reports, Ishiba said he will decide whether to endorse them “taking into account factors such as whether they have the understanding of their home constituencies.”
The LDP leadership decided Sunday not to give official endorsement to six members who received heavy in-house penalties on April 4 over their involvement in the political funds scandal surrounding party factions. These six include former LDP Diet Affairs Committee Chairperson Tsuyoshi Takagi and former LDP Policy Research Council Chairperson Koichi Hagiuda.
There are 43 other members who did not report certain income in their political fund reports — 37 incumbent lawmakers, three chiefs of lower house electoral district branches who are seeking to run in the upcoming election and three incumbent lawmakers expected to run for proportional representation seats. The LDP will not endorse them if their home constituencies do not apply for their endorsement or if party surveys find the races to be tough. Even if the party endorses them as candidates in single-seat constituencies, they will not be allowed to simultaneously run in proportional representation sections. If some of the members do not receive party endorsement, the party plans not to field other official candidates in their constituencies.
The Yomiuri Shimbun surveyed the LDP prefectural chapters to which the 43 members belong and found that official endorsement was sought for 41 out of the 43. Only the Fukui prefectural chapter had yet to decide as of Monday evening. The Fukuoka prefectural chapter decided not to apply for endorsement for Fukuoka Constituency No. 4. — not because of the political funds scandal but because of failure to coordinate a candidate.
Many local chapters are believed to have decided to apply for official endorsement of their members because they believe that the party leadership will give it.
Takao Ochi, who belonged to the former Abe faction and elected to the lower house from the Tokyo proportional representation block, was among members for whom the Tokyo chapter applied to the party for official endorsement. However, he told reporters Monday at the Diet building that he would not run in the next lower house election.
“We basically respect the requests of local chapters, but we might not give official endorsement if the election is expected to be tough for these lawmakers,” a senior LDP official said, indicating that some scandal-hit lawmakers will not be endorsed, irrespective of the wishes of their home constituencies. Ishiba will make a decision by Wednesday and announce the list of his party’s candidates for the upcoming election as early as the same day.
