Japan's ruling party starts presidential election

TOKYO, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Wednesday started its presidential election.

Four candidates -- vaccination minister Taro Kono, former foreign minister Fumio Kishida, former communications minister Sanae Takaichi, and the LDP's executive acting secretary general Seiko Noda -- compete in the voting.

In the first round of voting, LDP parliamentarians will cast 382 votes and another 382 votes are allotted to rank-and-file members. If no candidate secures a majority, a runoff will be held between the top two contenders.

In the runoff voting, the LDP lawmakers will cast the same number of votes, but the rank-and-file members' votes will be reduced to one for each of the LDP's 47 prefectural chapters, which indicates that the voting of LDP Diet members will significantly sway the result.

According to Kyodo News surveys, no candidate is likely to win in the first round by securing a majority of the total 764 votes, and a runoff will likely take place.

As the LDP-led coalition constitutes a majority in both chambers of the parliament in Japan, the new party president is almost certain to be elected prime minister in the extraordinary Diet session scheduled to be held on Oct. 4, succeeding the incumbent Yoshihide Suga.