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Japan parliament set to re-elect Koizumi

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 September 2005, 21:36 CDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Junichiro Koizumi was set to be formally re-elected as Japan's prime minister during a special session of parliament on Wednesday following a landslide election win by his Liberal Democratic Party last week.

Ahead of the parliamentary vote, all members of Koizumi's cabinet tendered their resignations at a cabinet meeting, but all are expected to be reappointed when Koizumi officially forms a new cabinet after he is re-elected by parliament.

Koizumi has vowed to press ahead with privatization of the postal system, a financial services giant with $3 trillion in assets, after the LDP's stunning victory in the September 11 general election, which he had cast as a referendum on postal reform.

Koizumi called the election after LDP rebels in the upper house voted with the opposition to defeat bills to privatize Japan Post.

The LDP, which has been governing in a coalition with the Buddhist-backed New Komeito party, took 296 seats in the 480-seat lower house, the first time it had won a majority in 15 years and assuring that Koizumi will be re-elected in the parliamentary vote.

Koizumi, who has said he has no plans to stay on once his tenure as LDP president expires next September, has said he will re-submit the postal bills quickly and will reshuffle his cabinet once they are passed.

Parliament is expected to sit until November 1.

Source: REUTERS

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