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On December 17, DPJ Election Campaign Committee Chair Sumio Mabuchi announced that a second batch of 33 persons to be included in the party’s first list of prospective candidates for the next general election had been approved by the Standing Officers Council. Together with the first batch of 34 candidates, this makes a total of 67 prospective candidates in the first list, including 10 female candidates.
Mabuchi announced the following: (1) the process of selecting the first list of prospective candidates for House of Representative single seat districts has ended with this announcement of the second batch of candidates, (2) from now on, the party will embark upon finding suitable persons to run in districts without a candidate, as well as continuing to monitor the situation in those districts in which a former DPJ candidate is still being considered, (3) the respective prefectural branch offices and party headquarters will hold discussions toward the selection of the remaining candidates, (4) the party will engage in unearthing persons of candidate material by means of direct applications by individuals, recommendations, and further by open recruitment and preliminary ballots, (5) a system will be promoted for encouraging the
selection of female candidates based upon proposals by the party’s Gender Equality Committee, (6) with regard to electoral districts which need special care in connection with the candidate selection process for the recent House of Councillors election, prospective candidates in such cases will be permitted to apply to party headquarters once they have been confirmed by the relevant prefectural branch headquarters, and (7) the timing for deciding the next batch of prospective candidates will be determined as appropriate.
Mabuchi said that there are 20 districts having a former DPJ candidate whose suitability as a candidate this time round is still under consideration. With regard to such persons, checks will be made to confirm whether they have succeeded in overcoming the issues which need to be dealt with, and if such confirmation is obtained then party headquarters will consider them as prospective candidates.
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