Friday, March 7, 2008

Election soon?

The signs of change in the DPJ's thinking on the timing of the next general election discussed here is now a definite policy shift.

As Mr. Ozawa told reporters in Kyoto Thursday, "We are struggling on the major premise of a dissolution this Diet session, although since the right to dissolve the Diet is held by the Cabinet, we don't know [what will happen]."

Mr. Ozawa might be encouraged by the findings of a recent Mainichi poll that shows that 44% continue to hope for a DPJ general election victory, compared with only 34% who want the LDP to win. (Interestingly, the poll also recorded a ten-point increase, to 15%, of respondents who want "another party" to win.)

Perhaps there is hope for Mr. Ozawa and the DPJ yet, although I remain convinced that the next general election will trigger a series of events likely to impact both parties profoundly, making it next to impossible to predict the post-election landscape.

And regardless, since the DPJ will not be fielding candidates in approximately fifty single-member districts, it is highly unlikely that it will win outright.

2 comments:

Jan Moren said...

I know I asked this once before but: why isn't DPJ fielding a candidate in every district? Even a small district is bound to have at least one nominally sober resident of age that supports the party?

Maya said...

If the DPJ became the dominant party would there be any change around policies of agricultural protectionism?