DPJ: 60, LDP: 37 - Abe Tunnels Under the Hashimoto Line after Upper House Election
Alberto Fujimori lost. That I saw coming. As for other election results, I’m pleased to be eating crow this morning. The Democratic Party of Japan and other opposition parties combined to win 75 seats in yesterday’s House of Councillors election. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party got 37 seats and its coalition partner, the New Komeito, a mere nine.
The totals in the Upper House are now 137 for the opposition and 105 for the ruling coalition, which still has the Lower House.
Despite the absolute trouncing his ruling coalition took, Abe kept the support of top LDP officials and vowed to stay on as Prime Minister to bravely push for reforms the people seem not to want.
This seems to be a trend among some world leaders of late. Perhaps wanting to appear courageous or resolute, they refuse to back down in the face of opposition, which would be admirable but for the fact that these guys are supposed to be leading democracies and the opposition is coming from their own people.
At the moment, there’s not a whole lot the LDP can do. It, along with its partner, the New Komeito, still controls the more powerful House of Representatives, but will obviously have a somewhat tougher time pushing through big reforms without the House of Councillors in its hands.
There was speculation prior to the election that something drastic might happen should the LDP fail to clear the “Hashimoto line” - 44 seats, the number that the LDP won when former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was pushed out.
Abe, though, has a little bit of time due to the lack of options for his party. The Prime Minister has no clear successor and the party lacks a shining star who could set things right. While some people have laid out plausible scenarios in which a snap election could be called, I think its unlikely, as the LDP would likely lose and they must know that.
Keep watching, though - I’ve been wrong before.
Now that the DPJ has a bit of power, the onus is on them to do something with it. The party seems to lack a coherent platform or ideology and did well probably simply because it was no the LDP. This amorphousness could become a liability if the DPJ is seen to have frittered away its Upper House strength by the time the next general election rolls around.
2007 Upper House Election by the Numbers
Going into the election, the ruling coalition of the LDP and New Komeito held 58 seats, while the opposition parties combined held 63. With 122 seats needed for a majority, the ruling coalition thus needed to secure 64 seats in order to be assured of an outright majority. As stated above, that did not happen, as the LDP/New Komeito managed only 46 seats together. Here is the breakdown of seats won by party:
Liberal Democratic Party: 37
New Komeito: 9
Democratic Party of Japan: 60
Japan Communist Party: 3
Social Democratic Party: 2
People’s New Party: 2
New Party Nippon: 1
Others/Independent: 8
| 2007 Upper House Election Results | ||||
| Party | Number of Winning Candidates | Total Seats | ||
| Total Elected on July 29 |
Electoral Districts | Proportional Representation |
||
| Liberal Democratic Party | 37 | 23 | 14 | 83 |
| New Komeito | 9 | 2 | 7 | 20 |
| Others | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Democratic Party of Japan | 60 | 40 | 20 | 109 |
| Japanese Communist Party | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| Social Democratic Party | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| People’s New Party | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| New Party Nippon | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Others | 6 | 6 | 0 | 11 |
| Vacancies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 121 | 73 | 48 | 242 |
Related Posts:
