Japan Press Weekly

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2022 July 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

Civil Alliance: unsuccessful cooperation among pro-constitution opposition parties causes regrettable election outcome

The Civil Alliance, in its statement issued on July 11 following the House of Councilors election, pointed out that unsuccessful electoral cooperation among opposition parties led to the setback of pro-constitution forces in the election, and demanded that all pro-constitution opposition parties make efforts to rebuild their cooperative ties, first of all in the coming extraordinary Diet session, as early as possible.

The statement says, "Pro-constitution opposition parties in the 2016 and 2019 House of Councilors elections fielded a united opposition candidate in all 32 single-seat constituencies, but this time did so in only eleven districts. A lack in the establishment of cooperative relations in the latest election barely resulted in a victory in Aomori, Nagano, and Okinawa."

Constitutional revisionists came to occupy two thirds of Upper House seats as a result of the election. However, the statement points out, "The Liberal Democratic Party increased its seats only in electoral districts, including single-seat contests. It actually lost one seat in the nationwide proportional representation bloc."

In fact, compared to the House of Representatives election last year, the LDP decreased both the number of votes it received and its share of the vote.

In proportional representation this time, the LDP obtained 18,256,244 votes, down 1,658,639 votes from the general election last year. Its vote share dropped to 34.4% from 34.7%.

The ratio of LDP votes to all eligible voters accounted for 16.8%, down 2.1 percentage points from the general election in 2021 and down 1.3 percentage points from the general election in 2009 when the LDP fell from power.