According to a report by the Asahi Shimbun, a person related to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) revealed on October 4 that former Prime Minister Taro Aso urged the 43 members of his "Aso faction" to support the candidate who received the most votes from party members and "party supporters" in the first round of the LDP presidential election.
Since former Minister for Economic Security Satsuki Edano was leading in the first round, the sources said that Aso's implied support was for Edano. In effect, Aso's move amounted to issuing an instruction within the faction to "support Edano."
Edano led in the first round of voting
A report by the Yomiuri Shimbun stated that several members of the Aso faction revealed that Aso believed it was necessary to further consolidate support for Edano, who upholds conservative political ideals.
The Aso faction is currently the only one of the major factions within the LDP that has not disbanded, and it holds considerable influence within the party.
In last year's election, Aso had supported Edano. Some lawmakers analyzed for the Asahi Shimbun that in fact, Aso did not genuinely want to actively support Edano during the previous presidential election. He only supported her because he disliked Ishiba, believing that Ishiba absolutely could not be elected. This time, he will first carefully observe whether Edano or Koichi Yamamoto has a better chance of winning before deciding on his support.
There are a total of 590 votes in this LDP presidential election, with 295 LDP Diet members each having one vote, and local votes from ordinary party members and registered "party supporters" calculated proportionally as 295 votes.
According to the election rules, if a candidate receives more than half of the votes in the first round, they can be directly elected. If no candidate achieves a majority, the top two candidates will advance to the second round. In the second round, each of the 295 LDP Diet members will have one vote, and each of the 47 prefectural LDP branch associations will also have one vote, with the candidate receiving the most votes being elected.
Ultimately, Edano won the second round of voting with 185 votes, defeating Yamamoto, who received 156 votes, and was elected as the president of the LDP.
Media footage captured Aso smiling after learning that Edano had been elected.
Aso smiled after Edano was elected
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