International   

Koizumi claims mandate for reform agenda

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Nov. 10. The Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, today led the ruling coalition to a definitive victory, even if only by a slender margin, in the country's latest general election that was held on Sunday.

He interpreted the narrow victory as a mandate for his reform agenda, in spite of a dramatic upturn in the political fortunes of the main Opposition outfit, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

While the DPJ's performance signalled the possibility of the eventual emergence of a two-party system in Japan, Mr. Koizumi's own Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) stayed ahead of all the others in the fray.

While the LDP failed to secure an absolute majority on its own strength in the 480 — member House of Representatives, the post-poll decision of three Independent winners to throw their lot with Mr. Koizumi raised the party's tally to exactly the 50 per cent mark — 240.

The New Conservative Party, which contested Sunday's general election as a constituent of the governing coalition, decided to merge with LDP tonight.

With this, the total strength of Mr. Koizumi's party in the new House of Representatives rose to 244. His coalition's overall tally was now placed at 278 seats, inclusive of the 34 that the New Komeito party won as an LDP ally.

This signified a fall in the coalition's profile, which stood at 287 before the latest poll. For the DPJ and its leader, Naoto Kan, the party's new score line of 177 seats represented not only a numerical leap from 137 in the previous House but also a qualitative upswing, according to regional political observers.

Basking in this new glow of success, Mr. Kan noted that the parameters of Japanese politics, dominated by a single party in the company of its satellites for long, were now changing. Mr. Koizumi, who had promised to tame the "shadow shoguns'' of the Japanese political culture, did not see the new poll verdict as a vote for ending the LDP `hegemony', a phenomenon that the Opposition perceived as the bane of the country's public life.

Instead of seeing the new reality as a setback to either the LDP or his own politics, Mr. Koizumi reaffirmed his pledge to carry forward structural economic reforms and indicated that he would not resile from his position that Japan should send its troops on "non-combat duties'' in aid of the U.S. military forces in Iraq. Nonetheless, he underlined that the evolving security situation in Iraq would determine the timing of an actual deployment there.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Jamali to head Pakistan team to SAARC summit
• Al-Qaeda aims to topple Saudi Govt.: Armitage
• Bremer warns of more attacks
• Koizumi claims mandate for reform agenda
• Impeachment move declared void
• Howard Dean rejects Federal campaign funds
• UNF pushes for fresh election
• Iran suspends uranium enrichment
• Taslima faces defamation suit
• Chandrika invites Ranil for talks
• An attack on press freedom, say Pak. journalists
• Indian ships in China for joint naval exercise
• Pak. charge of denial of visas to scribes refuted

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu