Ogawa Elected New Leader of Centrist Reform Alliance

Tokyo, Feb. 13 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese opposition Centrist Reform Alliance on Friday elected Junya Ogawa, former secretary-general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, as its new leader.

Ogawa, 54, gained 27 of the votes cast by the new party's 49 House of Representatives lawmakers, compared with 22 votes for his sole opponent, Takeshi Shina, 59, former parliamentary vice minister of internal affairs and communications, who is also from the CDP.

The Centrist Reform Alliance was formed by the CDP and Komeito ahead of last Sunday's election for the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, in which the party suffered a crushing defeat. Its co-leaders, Yoshihiko Noda from the CDP and Tetsuo Saito from Komeito, resigned to take responsibility.

The biggest challenge for Ogawa is to rebuild the party, following the election failure and amid frustration among members originating from the CDP over the fact that candidates from Komeito were given precedence in the general election, being placed high on the new party's proportional representation lists.

Over the preferential treatment given to Komeito candidates, Ogawa said at his inaugural press conference Friday that members from the CDP and Komeito "will be treated equally in principle" in future elections.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]