Japan general election 2005: Encyclopedia II - Japan general election 2005 - Election

Japan general election 2005 - Election

Koizumi maintained, as he pledged before calling the election, a position that he would not give official party endorsement to 37 members of his party who voted against the postal bills; that is, the 37 were not allowed to run as members of the party. To compensate for the disadvantages that non-party members suffer under the current election law, four LDP rebels including Shizuka Kamei announced on 17 August their formation of a new party, the People's New Party, to contest the elections [6]. Four other LDP rebels followed suit days after, forming New Party Japan (not to be confused with the Japan New Party of Morihiro Hosokawa) with a popular Nagano governor Yasuo Tanaka as head [7]. However, most rebels have not joined the new parties, preferring to run as independents so as not to sever their ties with local LDP organizations.

The formation of the new parties, which were largely seen as being solely needed for the election campaign, took place as Koizumi and his party's leadership were actively recruiting candidates to run in single-member districts against the rebels, and were pressuring local organizations to back the new candidates. New LDP candidates include celebrities, bureaucrats, and local politicians, and several rebels have already exited the race rather than run against their own party. Among the most publicized candidates was a maverick businessman Takafumi Horie who ran as an independent (with tacit LDP backing) against Kamei in Hiroshima District #6, a hot battleground in the last election between the then LDP's Kamei and a DPJ candidate [8].

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Election", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki