Breaking: Yoshihide Suga elected to replace Shinzo Abe as Japan PM

 

Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party has elected Yoshihide Suga as its new leader to succeed Shinzo Abe.

Following the move, Suga is almost certain to become the country’s next prime minister after Mr Abe last month announced his resignation  due to health reasons.

Mr Suga, 71, serves as chief cabinet secretary in the current administration and was widely expected to win.

He is considered a close ally of Mr Abe and likely to continue his predecessor’s policies.

As had been widely expected, Mr Suga won by a large margin, taking 377 of a total of 534 votes from his party’s lawmakers and regional representatives, The BBC reports.

Now that the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has chosen its new leader, there will be another vote on Wednesday in parliament, where he is almost certain to be made prime minister because of the LDP’s majority.

He will now finish the rest of the current period, until elections in September 2021.