Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was on Monday elected as the new leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), replacing outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced his resignation last month due to health issues, from the top post.
The 71-year-old is now expected to win a vote at an extraordinary Diet session on Wednesday to become Prime Minister, the country’s national broadcaster NHK reported.
Suga was elected at a joint plenary meeting of party members from both houses of the Diet (Parliament) and delegates from local chapter, reports Xinhua news agency.
In the scaled-down vote, 394 Diet members cast their ballots.
A total of 141 votes were cast by three delegates each from the country’s 47 prefectural chapters.
Besides Suga, the two other candidates in the fray were Shigeru Ishiba, 63, a former Defence Minister, and Fumio Kishida, 63, the LDP’s policy chief.