 JCP candidate wins a landslide victory in city assembly by-election A Japanese Communist Party candidate was elected with the largest number of votes in a by-election to fill two vacancies in the Saitama City assembly on December 26, backed by citizens who were angered by a pay raise enacted for assembly members by the majority of the Liberal Democratic-Komei-Democratic Party coalition. Elected were Saito Maki, 42-year-old former assembly member (8,525 votes) and the LDP-Komei candidate (5,835), while the DPJ candidate lost (3,392). The vote is in sharp contrast to the July 2004 House of Councilors election results in the same district, in which the DPJ received about 30,000 votes, the LDP 17,000, Komei 8,000, while the JCP won 5,902 votes. After three cities merged into Saitama City last spring, the ruling coalition parties decided to raise the monthly salary for the mayor by 160,000 yen and for assembly members by 230,000 yen and to pay the mayor an additional 10 million yen in a retirement allowance at the end of the mayor's 4-year term. As the only party that voted against this pay raise bill, the JCP called on citizens to rise in opposition by holding rallies and collecting signatures in a petition to the assembly. Citizens directed their anger at the mayor and assembly, saying, "While we are suffering from an economic depression, they are trying to give themselves a pay raise." About 63,000 signatures in opposition to the raise were collected. In the September session of the assembly, part of the decision was retracted. However, a JCP proposal to retract the monthly pay raise was rejected by all the other parties. Saito Shuji, who quit supporting the LDP and began to work for the JCP candidate, stated, "Our tax money should be used to improve living conditions and education." In this way, cross party support for the JCP increased. (end) |