Candidate Questionnaire (1st to 7th Wards): Response to slush money, LDP outperforms: Tokyo Shimbun TOKYO Web

Before the House of Representatives election was counted on the 27th, this newspaper surveyed 60 candidates in 14 constituencies in Chiba Prefecture, and received responses from 59 candidates. Participants were asked five questions, including the policies of the former Fumio Kishida administration over the past three years and the handling of the Liberal Democratic Party’s slush fund scandal, and were asked to answer each question rated on a scale of 10 to 1. Most opposition parties and independent candidates saw the LDP’s response to the slush money incident, and even among LDP candidates, assessments were divided. The results will be presented in two parts. (House of Representatives election coverage team)

Regarding the first question, “Evaluation of the former Kishida administration,” in addition to a 10-point scale, respondents were also asked to list up to three policies that they could or could not evaluate.

All 14 people gave the Liberal Democratic Party a high rating of 7 points or higher. In particular, in the field of defense and security, many candidates said “revising the three security documents” and “increasing the cost of defense.” “Economic policy,” “wage increase,” and “measures against high prices” also stood out.

On the other hand, a total of 21 opposition parties from Ritsumeikan, Meishin, the Communist Party, Reiwa, and Sansei gave the lowest score of 1. Most of these candidates gave negative evaluations in the area of ​​protection and security, which many liberal Democratic candidates had given high marks, such as “increasing defense spending” (for Democratic candidates) and “military expansion” (for Communist candidates).

The 22 opposition parties and independents also pointed to the Liberal Democratic Party’s “politics and money” problems, including the slush fund scandal, as something they did not appreciate in the former Kishida administration. By party, the Communist Party had the most votes, with nine. This was followed by Ritsumeikan (seven) and Meishin (three), with one person each from the nationals, Reiwa, and independents.

The two Reiwa panelists gave the previous Kishida administration a hard grade of 1 point, citing inadequate response and support to the disaster-stricken areas of the Noto Peninsula as reasons.

On the other hand, the scores for the seven Meishin candidates ranged from 7 to 1, while the two national candidates gave scores of 6 and 2, respectively. Evaluations were divided according to the candidate.

All seven members of the suffragettes scored low, between 3 and 1 points. Among the points that were not appreciated were the economic policies and the criticism of “immigration policies” aimed at widening the acceptance of foreign workers.

The second question asked respondents about the Liberal Democratic Party’s response to the slush fund incident on a scale of 10 to 10, whether it was enough (10 points) or not enough (1 point), and among 14 respondents -the LDP answer, the scores ranged from 10 to 3. 7 people got 6 points or more, and 7 people got 5 points or less. It seems that opinions are likely to be divided within the party regarding the handling of the slush fund issue.

Looking at the 45 opposition and independent parties, 38, excluding suffragettes, thought it was not enough by a score of 3 to 1. Out of the seven members, three got 6 points, two got 5 points, and two got 1 point.

Yes