Minshuto to elect leader on Sept. 21

Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) will hold its presidential election Sept. 21, with the focus now shifting to whether anyone will challenge incumbent Ichiro Ozawa, sources said.

Ozawa, whose term as president of the largest opposition party will expire at the end of September, is expected to seek his third term.

He is building support among party executives and senior politicians.

Meanwhile, younger members are behind moves to field rival candidates, which could lead to full-party voting to pick the party leader for the first time since 2002.

Some members had pushed to select a leader before an extraordinary Diet session, likely to begin in late August, so Minshuto could gear up for parliamentary debate with the ruling coalition.

But the party leadership scheduled the election for September, as planned, fearing an early election could frustrate moves to field a rival to Ozawa, resulting in internal friction, according to the sources.

Among possible candidates are Vice President Katsuya Okada, Yoshihiko Noda, former chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee, and Yoshito Sengoku and Yukio Edano, both former party policy chiefs.

Members within a group led by Vice President Seiji Maehara and another led by Noda are pushing for a policy debate between Ozawa and his rivals. No lawmakers have so far declared their intention to challenge for the party presidency.

According to the sources, the presidential election will be formally declared Sept. 7, and, if there is more than one candidate, voting will take place Sept. 21.

Besides party Diet members and local assembly members, about 270,000 rank-and-file party members and party supporters will be given a chance to vote.

Each Diet lawmaker will have two points, or votes, local assembly members 100 points combined and rank-and-filers and supporters 300 points in total.

Since 2002, in the two elections held as the incumbent's term expired, only one candidate stood for the party presidency. In cases where incumbents stepped down during their terms, only Diet lawmakers voted to choose a successor.(IHT/Asahi: July 7,2008)