February 14, 2012
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2012 February 8 - 14 [OKINAWA]
Anti-US base candidate loses in Ginowan mayoral election by 900 votes |
The winner, Sakima Atsushi, is a former Liberal Democratic Party member of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, and had the backing of the LDP and the Komei Party.
Longstanding anti-U.S. base figure Iha Yoichi received 21,712 votes, which exceeded the number of votes he received in two previous elections, but lost the election by only 900 votes.
Iha thanked his supporters for their hard work and said, “My failure to be elected, however, doesn’t mean that Ginowan citizens will accept another U.S. base constructed inside Okinawa. I’ll work even harder with you until the base issue is settled.”
During the election campaign, Iha took the lead in discussions on the base issue, calling for the “unconditional closure and return of the U.S. Futenma air base” which have long been the Okinawans’demand.
Meanwhile, Sakima was driven to promise the blocking of the Futenma base from continuing to exist as it is, calling also for the transfer of the base out of Okinawa although he supported the construction of a new base within Okinawa when he was a prefectural assemblyman.
Commenting on the election result, JCP Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on February 13 at a news conference in the Diet building said, “The candidate we supported unfortunately fell short of winning in the mayoral race by a narrow margin. But mayor-elect Sakima expressed his intent to oppose the continued operation of the base and the base relocation within Okinawa. We will keep a close eye on him and urge him to keep his election promise.”
Ichida stated that the unconditional closure of the base is the only way to solve the base issue, not conditionally move it to somewhere else in Japan, and expressed his determination on behalf of the JCP to “increase the nationwide struggle” against both the immobilization and the relocation of the Futenma base.
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