Liberal Democratic party MPs vote to appoint Shinzo Abe loyalist as party leader

Yoshihide Suga is poised to become Japan’s prime minister after he was comfortably elected to lead the ruling party following the resignation of Shinzo Abe.

Liberal Democratic party (LDP) MPs from both houses of parliament and representatives from prefectural party chapters voted overwhelmingly for Suga, with the Abe loyalist emerging from the poll on Monday with 377 of the 534 votes, well ahead of Fumio Kishida, a former foreign minister, with 89 votes, and Shigeru Ishiba, a former defence minister, with 68.

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