Suga’s LDP is less than a majority in the Tokyo city elections Election news

The Japanese leader said he “humbly accepts” that the LDP cannot win a majority as promised.

Japan’s ruling party and its allies have not won a full majority in Sunday’s Tokyo metropolitan assembly election.

The vote in the Japanese capital was closely watched for the lower house elections scheduled for October.

Public broadcaster NHK said Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won 33 seats in the 127-member assembly in Tokyo, while his ally Komeito won 23 seats.

Both parties made efforts to achieve a united majority of 64 seats.

The Tokyo Citizens First group, the party of Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, won 31 seats.

Some analysts say the LDP’s disappointing results could put pressure on Sugari, whose term as party chairman ends in late September, ahead of the election date scheduled for the Japanese House of Representatives.

The head of the LDP is almost certain to be prime minister, given the party’s dominance in parliament.

Other observers, however, noted that the results had risen for the LDP, which currently has 25 seats in the Tokyo assembly, and so it is unlikely that it will call for a replacement for Suga as leader.

The prime minister told reporters in his office on Monday that he had “humbly” accepted that “we could not get a majority as promised.”

“Our offices and headquarters in Tokyo will review the outcome together and we will prepare for the next one,” he said.

Analysts told the Kyodo news agency that the LDP has made less-than-expected progress with the fact that people are not happy with Suga’s decision to carry out the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in the COVID-19 pandemic. The games will begin on July 23rd.

“The results show that the public does not support the central government led by Mr. Suga. The LDP put a lot of effort into the Tokyo elections this time, but it had a bad result,” Masahiro Iwasaki, a political science professor at Nihon University, told Kyodo.

“This is not for the LDP and not for the Suga government,” Iwasaki said.

Voters on Sunday said COVID-19 remained a major concern. When the pandemic resurfaced in Japan, new COVID-19 infections in Tokyo rose more than five weeks, with 716 reported on Saturday.

“My focus in these elections was pandemic measures,” a 26-year-old actor, who is deaf, wrote to a Reuters reporter in a note outside the polling station. He asked not to be named.

“I chose a candidate who would take action to save the infected person because I am afraid of losing my job and income if I become infected,” he said, refusing to nominate the candidate. “I don’t care about political parties.”

Another voter was criticized for the LDP’s handling of the pandemic.

“I wanted to vote for someone in the opposition because I don’t support the current (national) government,” said Noriko Ushimaru, a woman in her 80s. “They are hopeful of coronavirus responses. I don’t see a decision to remove the virus.”

The Tokyo Olympics amid the pandemic and a shortage of vaccine supplies, the government said, are examples of inappropriate measures against coronavirus.