Nippon Ishin Proposes Primaries to Unify Opposition Candidates

Tokyo, Jan. 22 (Jiji Press)--Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) on Wednesday unveiled a draft plan to hold primaries to unify opposition candidates for 32 single-seat constituencies in the upcoming House of Councillors election.

The proposal calls for conducting online public opinion polls in constituencies where multiple opposition parties plan to field candidates and deciding by mid-May which party will field a candidate in each constituency.

Nippon Ishin plans to call on all opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, to participate. Its secretary-general, Ryohei Iwatani, will begin talks with other parties on Friday, but it is unclear whether the plan will be realized as some in the opposition camp seem reluctant.

The proposed system has three stages. In the first, each opposition party would be awarded points based on the results of online polls and proportional representation votes it won in last year's House of Representatives election. The points would be used to distribute candidate slots.

In the second stage, each party would declare the constituencies in which it wants to field candidates, based on the number of candidate slots allocated to it.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]