He goes to the polls in Tokyo in the shadow of the pandemic while the Olympics are held by Reuters

By Kiyoshi Takenaka

TOKYO (Reuters) -Tokyo residents went to the polls on Sunday, 19 days before the start of the Olympics, to elect members of the metropolitan committee, as polls showed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is likely to win the vote.

The elections in the capital, in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, will have little effect on the long-planned Games, but it is important for the lower house elections to be held in October.

Suga’s term as president of the party will expire at the end of September and his party’s strong polls in the Tokyo poll could help him get another term, analysts say. The head of the LDP is almost certain to be prime minister, given the party’s large majority in parliament.

“I voted for a non-LDP candidate because I am partly against holding the Olympics, even though it would be too late to change now,” the 60-year-old female office worker said, and asked not to be identified.

“But my main interest was to select a candidate with a more pragmatic policy, including environmental actions, than coronaviruses or the Olympics,” he said.

Surveys will close at 20:00 (1100 GMT)

In a recent poll by Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 23% of those polled said they would vote in favor of the LDP candidates, 17% in favor of the Tokyo People’s First Party and 8% in favor of the Japanese Communist Party.

The Tokyo Citizens First party wants the Olympics without spectators and the Communist Party of Japan wants to cancel them. Suga said he intended to host the Games, but would not hesitate if the audience had to be banned.

Tokyo Citizens First is currently the largest party in the metropolitan assembly with 46 of its 127 seats, followed by the LDP with 25. The regional party formed by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike won a landslide victory in the last 2017 elections.

The Tokyo Olympics, delayed by a year due to the outbreak of the virus, will begin on July 23.

Elections came when the pandemic broke out again in Japan and Tokyo reported 716 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, more than five weeks away.

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

“I chose a candidate who would take action to save the infected people because I am afraid of losing my job and income if I became infected,” he said, denying the party’s name. “I don’t care about political parties.”