Yoshihide Suga is going to become Japan’s prime minister after he was comfortably elected to lead the ruling party following the resignation of Shinzo Abe, reports The Guardian.
Liberal Democratic party (LDP) MPs from both houses of parliament and representatives from prefectural party chapters voted overwhelmingly for Suga, with the Abe loyalist emerging from the poll on Monday with 377 of the 534 votes, well ahead of Fumio Kishida, a former foreign minister, with 89 votes, and Shigeru Ishiba, a former defence minister, with 68.
Suga, who has been the public face of the Abe administration during almost eight years as the government’s top spokesman, will officially become prime minister after the LDP-controlled lower and upper houses vote on his appointment on Wednesday.
The 71-year-old son of a strawberry farmer from rural northern Japan quickly emerged as the favourite to replace Abe, who announced his resignation last month on health grounds, after securing the support of major LDP factions.❐
