Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cruised to victory in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election Thursday, securing a historic third term that will effectively extend his time in power by another three years.
Abe comfortably beat his only contender, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, by securing 553 out of a total 807 votes. He won 329 out of the 402 valid ballots cast by LDP members of the Diet, and 224 out of the remaining 405 votes allocated to the LDP's prefectural chapters based on the number of members age 18 or older who have paid party fees.
Although he lost the election, Ishiba put up a decent fight, bagging 181 regional votes — or 44.6 percent of the total cast by prefectural branches. This made the Abe campaign barely meet its own self-imposed goal of winning 55 percent of such votes. Seventy-three LDP lawmakers voted for Ishiba.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.