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The Empire of Nagakawa.
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[Live updates] 2020 Republican Party leadership election
Republican Party leadership election
Election held: 1 December 2020, 9:00AM - 12:16PM
Results declared: 1 December 2020, 1:00pm
251 delegates needed to win
Total votes cast: 500
CANDIDATES
Takayuki Soejima: 227
Hideyoshi Kaburagi: 273
Leader before election: Yoichi Arikawa
Elected leader: Hideyoshi Kaburagi
The 2020 Republican Party leadership election was held on 1 December 2020 to elect the new President of the Republican Party. It was prompted on 3 September 2020, when incumbent Prime Minister Yoichi Arikawa, citing family-related problems, announced his intention to resign at the end of the year.
Former Shadow Foreign Minister Hideyoshi Kaburagi, initially considered to be at a disadvantage due to his non-affiliation with any Republican faction, secured a slim victory over Senior Defence Minister Takayuki Soejima, with 273 votes to Soejima’s 227 votes.
With this victory, Kaburagi will be sworn into office as the 15th Prime Minister by the Emperor at 8:00AM on 2 January 2021, one day after the Arikawa II Cabinet steps down.
Background
On the morning of 3 September 2020, barely a month after his cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Yoichi Arikawa announced that he would be resigning around the end of the year, stating that he was unable to discharge his duties as Prime Minister due to ongoing family problems. In a subsequent press conference in the evening that same day, Republican Secretary-general Hakuo Yamashita announced that a leadership election would be called in early December, with the winning candidate given one month to form his cabinet and for the Arikawa Cabinet II to hand over power.
Initially, four candidates joined the race, but the selection soon came down to two as Senior Interior Minister Yukio Kamii and Education Minister Fuyuka Tōjō exited the race due to a lack of support. Pundits and media networks were hesitant to make projections, as the remaining two candidates, Senior Defence Minister Takayuki Soejima and former Shadow Foreign Minister Hideyoshi Kaburagi, appeared to be neck-to-neck in terms of support.
Soejima campaigned on the platform of the centrist and hawkish Koyama Faction, which was created by the late Prime Minister Noriyuki Koyama, and which Soejima has helmed since then. He caucused the moderate and neoliberal wings of the Republican Party, pledging to increase funding for defence-related R&D as well as granting more freedom to the Central Bank of Nagakawa to implement monetary policies, freedoms that were somewhat curtailed under Prime Minister Yoichi Arikawa. Conversely, the non-affiliated Kaburagi courted both the left-wing Uragaki Faction as well as less strident members of the Koyama Faction, calling for greater party unity and for a reduction in the influence of the faction system, but also to continue most of the leftist reforms initiated by Arikawa, as well as closer ties with the Social Democratic Party, with which the Republican Party forms the government.
Timeline
3 September: PM Yoichi Arikawa announces intention to resign- Secretary-general Hakuo Yamashita announces leadership election
4 September: Takayuki Soejima announces candidacy
6 September: Hideyoshi Kaburagi announces candidacy; Yukio Kamii follows suit
7 September: Fuyuka Tōjō announces candidacy
16 September: Leadership vote confirmed to take place in December
19 October: Official timeline for election procedure released
31 October: First debate
3 November: Kamii drops out of race
6 November: Tōjō drops out of race
20 November: Second debate
23 November: Republican Party loses Ru-17 in a by-election
1 December: election held- Kaburagi elected
Candidates
Takayuki Soejima
冴島 敬之
Senior Defence Minister (since 2019)
Shadow Defence Minister (2014 - 2019)
Shadow Interior Minister (2009 - 2014)
Chief Cabinet Secretary (2009)
Junior Defence Minister (2008 - 2009)
Leader of the Koyama Faction (since 2008)
Parliamentary Secretary to the Defence Ministry (2002 - 2008)
MP for Hoku-mikoto 9th District (since 1998)
Hideyoshi Kaburagi
蕪木 秀義
Shadow Foreign Minister (2009 - 2019)
Junior Foreign Minister (2008 - 2009)
Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Ministry (2000 - 2008)
MP for Ameya 1st District (since 1996)
Exited race:
Yukio Kamii (59), Senior Interior Minister
Fuyuka Tōjō (64), Education Minister
Declined:
Reiko Hattori (55), Deputy Prime Minister
Kiyomi Tomura (76), Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yūko Ekita (77), Former Senior METI
Yūhei Kanno (39), Junior METI
Yoshitsune Yamaguchi (48), Minister of Justice, Law Enforcement, and Emergency Services
Taisei Ishida (78), Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs
Tadayori Kanazawa (79), former Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs
Masakazu Hosoyama (69), Secretary of the Treasury
Yasuhiko Kitagawa (80), former Shadow Deputy Prime Minister
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