The2020 Liberal Democratic Party of Japan presidential election was triggered byShinzo Abe's announcement on 28 August 2020 that he would resign asPresident of the Liberal Democratic Party andPrime Minister of Japan, citing a relapse of his colitis. Voting took place on 14 September 2020 to elect the next president of theLiberal Democratic Party of Japan, three days before theNational Diet was scheduled to hold a session to elect the new prime minister.[1] Initially scheduled to be held in September 2021, incumbent LDP president and the longest-servingPrime Minister of Japan,Shinzo Abe, suddenly resigned on 28 August 2020, citing recent health concerns, prompting an election to select the President to serve the rest of Abe's term.[2][3][4]
Chief Cabinet SecretaryYoshihide Suga easily won the election, securing endorsements from a majority of voting members of the party in the days preceding the vote.[5] As the Liberal Democratic Party controlled a majority in theNational Diet as a member of the governing coalition, Suga successfully succeeded Abe as Prime Minister of Japan on 16 September 2020. His principal rival,Fumio Kishida, later succeeded him as prime ministerafter Suga's resignation in October 2021. The third-placed candidate,Shigeru Ishiba, would eventually succeed Kishida in2024 after the latter also resigned the party leadership and the premiership.
Following several hospital visits which launched speculation into his health,[6][7] incumbent Prime MinisterShinzo Abe announced during a press conference on 28 August 2020 that he would resign before the end of his final term in office due to a resurgence of his chroniculcerative colitis. During the press conference, Abe announced that as a result the LDP is preparing for a leadership election to choose his successor, and that he would not endorse any specific candidate.[2][3][4]
There are two ways by which the president could be elected in the leadership election: the first would be an open election in which voting power is given to both party members and members of the National Diet. Each would receive half of the voting power to elect the new president. The other method would allow the vote to be restricted to the Diet members (394) and representatives from each of Japan's 47 prefectures (141), which would add up to 535 electors.[8] According to an LDP lawmaker,Toshihiro Nikai, the party's secretary-general, decided on the second option.[9] To appear on the ballot, candidates must receive at least 20 nominations from the 394 Diet members in the LDP caucus.[10]
44 prefectural LDP branches held primaries, while the prefectural federations inHokkaido andNiigata conducted questionnaire-style surveys among their members and the LDPAkita didn't hold any form of membership vote.
Of the 46 primaries or surveys, Kishida only carried his homeprefecture of Hiroshima, winning all three delegates, andYamanashi where he won two delegates over one for Suga.
In all other prefectures, Suga prevailed, winning either all three prefectural delegates, or two with the third going to Ishiba, depending on the vote margin of his victory and on whether the primary voting system wasd'Hondt proportional, as it was in the majority of prefectures, orFPTP.[23]
^Yomiuri Shimbun, September 17, 2020:早わかり！ 自民党総裁選2020, table with primary votes & delegate count by prefecture & candidate at the bottom, retrieved August 31, 2021. (Okinawa results are missing in the source as they were still "scheduled to be published";the turnout is published on the website of the LDP Okinawa, the result apparently isn't.)
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