Democratic Party leader Maehara resigns over merger disarray

Oct 31, 2017 | News On Japan

Oct 31, 2017 (Japan Today) - Seiji Maehara, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, resigned on Monday to take responsibility for the disarray following a failed merger with the fledgling force led by Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike ahead of the Oct 22 lower house election.

Maehara said he will leave the Democratic Party and join Koike's Party of Hope. He has already been included in the list of the latter's parliament group, according to the secretariat of the lower house.

The party accepted the resignation of Maehara and will pick a new leader on Tuesday ahead of the special Diet session starting the next day.

"It is natural to take responsibility for the failure (in the election) as politics is all about results," Maehara told reporters in the party's headquarters. He had assumed the top post in early September.

The party now comprises 46 members of the House of Councillors, or upper house, and 18 lawmakers, who ran as independents in the House of Representatives election, along with its regional chapters.

Among them, 13 lower house lawmakers, including former Democratic Party President Katsuya Okada, have recently formed an independent group in the Diet.

The 55-year-old Maehara had effectively disbanded the Democratic Party and sought to have all of its lower house members run as part of the Party of Hope in an attempt to topple the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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