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Yoshihide Suga frontrunner in race to succeed Shinzo Abe: Poll

Yoshihide Suga frontrunner in race to succeed Shinzo Abe: Poll

Yoshihide Suga

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was being expected to turn out people's favourite in the upcoming elections to replace former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the opinion polls are now supporting that assumption.

According to a poll published by a local daily newspaper on Thursday, Suga is the frontrunner in the election race, as around 44 per cent survey-takers said they would like to see Suga replacing Abe.

The longest-serving Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, had to step down from his post last month confirming the rumours doing rounds abouthis ill-health.

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The elections for the post of Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) head are scheduled for Setember 14. Suga will be competing against former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba and ex-foreign minister Fumio Kishida. However, political experts are predicting Suga's win. The prediction has been supported by the poll as 36 per cent said they would like to see the former Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba replacing Abe, whereas 44 per cent supported Suga.

September 08 was the last day for leaders to file their nomination, and the leaders are now allowed to start campaigning for the race.

The poll was conducted by theSocial Survey Research Centre and was published in a local daily newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.

The poll has come few days after Suga hinted pushing for snap elections and said he is hopeful about Tokyo Olympic Games.”We’d like to contain the pandemic and make this happen,” he said. ”There are various, extraordinary merits for Japan to host the Games.”