Noda likely to call November poll
PM's party is expected to lose heavily in the snap election, which he has to hold 'soon' as a condition for opposition support for sales tax law
Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is likely to call a snap election for November, ruling and opposition party members said yesterday, despite the likelihood that his party will suffer a drubbing.
Noda, who took office last September as Japan's sixth premier in five years, scored a rare policy win this month when parliament enacted a law to double the sales tax to curb public debt. But he had to pledge to call an election "soon" to gain opposition backing to pass the bill in a divided parliament.
Members of Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) want to put off an election given their sagging support, but opposition parties, which control parliament's upper house, can force his hand by blocking a bill to allow fresh bond issues to fund the budget this fiscal year.
"I expect the lower house will be dissolved in October and elections will be called in November," Keiichi Ishii, policy chief of the New Komeito opposition party, said in an interview.
The New Komeito is an ally of the biggest opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The parties backed Noda's tax increase legislation.
"The scenario is that parliament will hold an extraordinary session early in October and may pass the deficit bond bill and an extra budget before the prime minister dissolves the [lower] chamber," Ishii said.
"But to secure passage of the bond bill, Noda must promise to hold elections during the extra parliament session."