Tokyo: Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda was elected Monday as head of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, edging out Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda. He will succeed Prime Minister Naoto Kan who resigned on August 26.
Noda won 215 votes in the run-off held in the afternoon, while Kaieda received 177 votes. Noda was helped in the run-off by supporters of Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara Maehara, in addition to his supporters as well as Kan’s.
Apart from Noda, Kaieda and Maehara, Farm Minister Michihiko Kano and former Transport Minister Sumio Mabuchi had declared their candidature for the post of the president of the DPJ.
In the first round of voting held early today, Kaieda and Noda won 143 votes and 102 votes, respectively, but none of the five candidates obtained a majority vote, leading to a run-off between the two later in the afternoon. Maehara came in at the third spot with 74 votes.
In an expected decision, Kan said Friday that he was stepping down as DPJ chief effectively ending his 15-month tenure as Prime Minister. The president of the Democratic Party will become Japan’s prime minister due to the party’s strength in parliament.
Kan was under tremendous pressure from the opposition as well as from his own party ranks to step down as his government failed to properly address the situation created by the March 11 earthquake-tsunami that wrought havoc on north-east Japan, including the nuclear crisis set off by the Fukushima nuclear power plant which leaked radiation after its reactors were wrecked in the twin disasters.
The nuclear accident, the worst in 25 years after Chernobyl, had forced nearly 80,000 people to leave their homes and surroundings in a 20-kilometer periphery of the stricken plant.
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