Oct 27 (Japan Times) - Seiji Maehara, president of what was once the biggest opposition Democratic Party, announced Friday he will resign to take responsibility for his "lapse in judgment," which caused disarray among the opposition and helped Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition score a sweeping victory in Sunday's snap election.
"I feel excruciating responsibility for failing to form a united opposition front against the ruling bloc and, as a result, allowing it to maintain a two-thirds super-majority" in the Lower House, a contrite Maehara told a party-wide meeting with rank-and-file members of the DP's Upper House caucus and some independents.
"In the world of politics, results mean everything, but I failed to make the right decision . . . I would therefore like to resign as president," Maehara said, before bowing deeply.
Maehara's resignation marks a bitter outcome for his political gamble, which few in the DP - until recently Japan's biggest opposition party - could have anticipated when it held its general meeting last month. At the gathering, the party approved what appeared to be a life-saving deal proposed by Maehara for the struggling DP: to let all of its Lower House members join popular Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's upstart party, Kibo no To (Party of Hope), and run under her banner for the Oct. 22 election.
But as it turned out, the plan backfired disastrously, not only sowing a divide in the DP but resulting in the loss of a sizable number of DP lawmakers who migrated to Kibo no To. Still reeling from its poor election showing, Kibo no To on Friday scrambled to get its tentative leadership team up and running. In a general meeting of those who survived Sunday's poll, the new party decided to cast ballots for Shu Watanabe, a Kibo no To member elected from Shizuoka Prefecture, to represent the party in a Diet vote that will select the new prime minister on Nov. 1.
Source: ANNnewsCH
