Abe wins votes but not hearts: analysts

The same that happens in every democracy on Earth. Do you think Trump won all hearts in America? Putin? Macron? This is expected and not even news

Meanwhile, left-leaning DP members banded together to form a new progressive party, the Constitutional Democrats.

In the event, neither party was able to organise a nationwide campaign in the short time available, and both fizzled.

"Fizzled"? The Party of Hope, maybe. The Constitutional Democrats didn't do too badly at all, under the circumstances.

dcog9065Today  11:50 am JST

The same that happens in every democracy on Earth. Do you think Trump won all hearts in America? Putin? Macron? 

They won more than Abe. The LDP only got something like 33% of the popular vote. Pretty feeble, really.

They won more than Abe. The LDP only got something like 33% of the popular vote. Pretty feeble, really.

@Simon Foston: Yeah they didn't get much, which is why they have coalitions. The coalition has a supermajority in parliament so it's folly to say that isn't representative. The opposition, even combined into a coalition would have got 100 seats or something. They are a non-entity in parliament and wholly unsuited for government and even opposition, which is exactly why no one voted for them

no one voted for them

Since only something like 33% voted for the LDP, some two-thirds of voters voted NOT for the LDP, i.e. for the opposition. That's a pretty big 'no one'.

The split of the opposition vote plus the weighting of votes toward rural areas is what gave the LDP their win, not any support for LDP policies.

In the single seat races the LDP candidates tended to win by large majorities, gaining 70-80% of the vote in many cases. A lot of that is due to the preference people have for the "son of the last guy", no matter how useless or corrupt the candidate is.

In the proportional vote the LDP only got around 35%. It suggests Abe might have some difficulty getting his regressive constitutional changes passed. He'll have to rely on the media giving him an easy ride and failing to ask any relevant questions, as usual.

dcog9065Today  02:30 pm JST

They won more than Abe. The LDP only got something like 33% of the popular vote. Pretty feeble, really.

@Simon Foston: Yeah they didn't get much, which is why they have coalitions. The coalition has a supermajority in parliament so it's folly to say that isn't representative.

What, don't you understand that due to the election system 33% of the vote translates into something like 60% of the Lower House seats? You think that's representative?

ScroteToday  03:11 pm JST

In the single seat races the LDP candidates tended to win by large majorities, gaining 70-80% of the vote in many cases. A lot of that is due to the preference people have for the "son of the last guy", no matter how useless or corrupt the candidate is.

They bucked the trend in Kagoshima. The LDP incumbent, who inherited the seat from his dad, had been grooming his own spawn to take over. Worthless LDP shill mk.2 had to drop out due to ill health, Worthless LDP shill mk.3 duly took his place in the race and lost to the CDPJ candidate who had won in 2009 on the DPJ ticket. Maybe it would have been a bit different if there had been a bit more enthusiasm for Abe and the LDP.

Simon, that's good to hear. It looks like it was a close race, but I'm glad that at least one "family seat" has been lost by the LDP.