A growing number of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers are calling for an early dissolution of the House of Representatives for a general election, in an attempt to benefit from the party's higher approval rating since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his intention to resign.
If the lower house is dissolved on the momentum of a new prime minister, the election race is expected to favor the LDP.
"Since it's a new cabinet, it's important to ask the people for their trust at some point [through an election]," Hiroshi Moriyama, chairperson of the LDP's Diet Affairs Committee, told reporters on Monday.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso said in a speech on Sunday that the dissolution of the House of Representatives "may be very soon."
According to a nationwide survey conducted in September by The Yomiuri Shimbun, the support rate for the LDP was 41%, up 8 percentage points from August when Abe had not announced his intention to resign. A midranking lawmaker said: "The opposition parties have not made any progress in cooperating with each other for the election. If we do it now, we can win."
It was thought at one point by both the ruling and the opposition parties that the election would be held on Oct. 25, on the basis that Yoshihide Suga, newly elected LDP president, would dissolve the lower house immediately after taking office as prime minister.
Another date also rumored is Nov. 1, assuming that the lower house would be dissolved in an extraordinary Diet session in early October after budget appropriation requests for the next fiscal year are finished at the end of this month.
However, dissolution of the lower house at this time might face opposition from the public, as the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has yet to be brought under control. It is also speculated that the election will take place in December or January next year, after assessing the spread of the virus at a time when seasonal cases of influenza will also be on the increase.
At a press conference on Monday, Suga said the timing of the election was "a difficult question since there is only one year left" before the lower house members finish their current terms.
"When I was chief cabinet secretary I could just simply say, 'if the prime minister decides to dissolve the lower house, he will do so,'" Suga said, implying he would be more careful as prime minister.
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