TOKYO, Oc t 30 – Yoshihiko Noda, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on Wednesday stepped up his bid to rally support across opposition party lines for parliament to choose him as the next prime minister after his party performed strongly in the weekend general election, Kyodo news agency reported.
Noda, who was Japan’s prime minister more than a decade ago, met with Nobuhiko Baba, who leads the Japan Innovation Party, to seek his support, but Baba refrained from making his stance clear on the spot.
Japan was plunged into political uncertainty after the crushing defeat of the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito party in Sunday’s election.
The coalition lost its majority in the House of Representatives, meaning that they need outside votes to reelect Shigeru Ishiba as prime minister in a parliamentary session next month.
The CDPJ saw its number of seats in the powerful lower house jump but needs the support of other opposition parties for Noda to secure the minimum of 233 votes to be elected prime minister.
“We can’t stand with him unless there is a good cause or a concrete idea for political reforms,” Baba told reporters after his meeting with Noda in the Diet.
Under the Constitution, a new prime minister must be elected in parliament after a general election. If no one gets majority support, the vote to choose the next prime minister will go to a runoff between the top two contenders, likely Ishiba and Noda. In this scenario, all the votes Tamaki gets would be invalid in the runoff, which would then benefit Ishiba.
Noda is exploring a meeting with Tamaki, who said Tuesday that even if Noda gets the DPP votes, it would be impossible to outcompete the ruling camp.
