Japan mulls snap election during next month: Reports
14 Nov 2014 5:10 AM IST
Japan could face snap elections next month, two years ahead of schedule, if prime minister Shinzo Abe moves to pump his public support by delaying another unpopular tax hike as the economic recovery slackens, media said on Wednesday. The first jump in sales tax, which came into effect in April, knocked a tentative revival off course and was blamed for a sharp fall in Japan’s second-quarter growth.
Commentators are coalescing around the idea that Abe will rule out a second rise, from eight percent to 10, and seek a popular mandate that would help him vanquish mumblings of discontent within his own Liberal Democratic Party and catch the still-battered opposition unprepared. ‘Calling within this year is among my options,’ Abe told party bigwigs, Nikkei reported.
The LDP and its junior coalition party Komeito have begun preparations for a vote on either 14 December or 21, four other major national papers said.
Abe has been coy in public, telling reporters in Beijing yesterday he had made no decisions, although he admitted to a television interviewer last week: ‘When asked the question, a prime minister has a set formula: ‘I’m not thinking of a snap election’. Reports of an election come ahead of the release of the third quarter GDP data on Monday, which the government has for a long time said will inform the decision on pressing ahead with the sales tax hike scheduled to take effect in October next year.
Commentators are coalescing around the idea that Abe will rule out a second rise, from eight percent to 10, and seek a popular mandate that would help him vanquish mumblings of discontent within his own Liberal Democratic Party and catch the still-battered opposition unprepared. ‘Calling within this year is among my options,’ Abe told party bigwigs, Nikkei reported.
The LDP and its junior coalition party Komeito have begun preparations for a vote on either 14 December or 21, four other major national papers said.
Abe has been coy in public, telling reporters in Beijing yesterday he had made no decisions, although he admitted to a television interviewer last week: ‘When asked the question, a prime minister has a set formula: ‘I’m not thinking of a snap election’. Reports of an election come ahead of the release of the third quarter GDP data on Monday, which the government has for a long time said will inform the decision on pressing ahead with the sales tax hike scheduled to take effect in October next year.
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