Liberal Democratic Party members who voted against postal privatization last month will probably be expelled if they hold onto their party memberships while running in the Sept. 11 Lower House election, LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe said Wednesday.
"The rebels naturally will be subject to measures from the party's disciplinary committee," Tsutomu Takebe said on a radio show.
"If the rebels damage LDP-endorsed candidates by running in the election while maintaining LDP membership, that violates LDP rules."
He said they probably would be expelled from the party after the election.
But if they leave the party, win their constituency as independent candidates and support Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal reform program, the LDP might consider letting them rejoin in the future, Takebe said.
Of the 37 LDP members who voted in the House of Representatives against the bills to privatize Japan Post, 26 still have retained their party membership but are expected to run as independents.
Seven rebels have left the LDP to join newly formed parties and four others have decided not to run in the election.
Postal privatization is the core of Koizumi's structural reform drive and he has said the election is to ask voters whether they support the reform.
The LDP will not endorse election candidates from its party who voted against the postal bills and has been lining up its own candidates to challenge them.