Japan Press Weekly

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2013 July 17 - 23 [ELECTION]

All JCP candidates win assembly seats in Naha and Nara cities

All Japanese Communist Party candidates won seats in the assembly elections held on July 21 in Naha City in Okinawa Prefecture and Nara City in Nara Prefecture.

In the Naha City Assembly election which saw 57 candidates competing for 40 seats, the JCP successfully increased the number of its seats to six from its pre-election strength of five seats, accounting for 15% of the assembly seats, up 2.5 percentage point from its previous share.

The number of votes cast for the JCP climbed to 17,781 from 14,307 in the previous election four years ago.

During the election campaign, the JCP promised to work for a “peaceful and healthy Okinawa” by removing all U.S. military facilities, including the Naha Military Port, reducing the national health insurance tax burden, and improving the free-medical care program for children.

In this election, the Liberal Democratic Party gained four more seats while the Democratic Party of Japan lost two seats.

On the same day in the 39-seat Nara City Assembly race, all seven JCP candidates succeeded in capturing seats with a record high number of 26,493 votes (15.5% of all votes cast).