Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s sudden decision to call a general election on Oct. 27 has left opposition parties scrambling to finalize their candidate lists and little time to coordinate with one another to avoid multi-cornered fights that split the opposition vote.
“We have to admit that it's not easy and we don't have much time before Oct. 15 when the campaign kicks off. But that doesn't mean we should give up on our efforts (on unified candidates),” Junya Ogawa, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan's secretary-general said in a television interview on Wednesday.
With less than two weeks until the start of campaigning for the 465-seat Lower House, including 289 district seats, the CDP — the country's main opposition party — plans to field candidates in over 200 districts, Ogawa said. The party currently controls 99 seats in the lower chamber of parliament.
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