Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is scheduled to hold its presidential election on Wednesday afternoon to pick the successor to outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, with polls showing a possibility of a runoff between the top two contenders.
Four candidates -- vaccination minister Taro Kono, former foreign minister Fumio Kishida, former communications minister Sanae Takaichi, and the LDP's executive acting secretary general Seiko Noda -- will compete in the election which is slated to begin at 1:00 p.m. local time (0400 GMT).
In the first round of voting, LDP parliamentarians will cast 382 votes and another 382 votes are allotted to rank-and-file party members. If no candidate secures a majority, a runoff will be held between the top two contenders.
In the runoff voting, the LDP lawmakers will cast the same number of votes, but the rank-and-file members' votes will be reduced to one for each of the LDP's 47 prefectural chapters, which indicates that the voting of LDP Diet members will significantly sway the result.
According to Kyodo News surveys, no candidate is likely to win in the first round by securing a majority of the total 764 votes, and a runoff will likely take place.
As the LDP-led coalition constitutes a majority in both chambers of the parliament, the new party president is almost certain to be elected prime minister in the extraordinary Diet session scheduled to be held on Oct. 4.
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