DPJ to confront gov`t, ruling parties if election is delayed

TOKYO, Oct. 22 Kyodo -
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan will confront the government and
the ruling parties if Prime Minister Taro Aso indicates that he intends to
delay a widely-anticipated House of Representatives election, DPJ lawmaker
Azuma Koshiishi said Wednesday.

Koshiishi, who heads the DPJ's House of Councillors caucus, made the remarks
just before the opposition-controlled upper house began deliberating a bill to
extend Japan's antiterrorism refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.
Although the DPJ remains opposed to the mission, the party has recently shown a
more cooperative stance toward Aso for a smooth parliamentary process, in the
hope that helping him clear his priorities would lead him to call the election
at an early date.
Aso has already succeeded in enacting the fiscal 2008 supplementary budget, and
the extension bill passed the lower house Tuesday.
So far, the upper house is expected to vote down the bill at a plenary session
on Oct. 29 after only two days of deliberations at its committee. The move is
likely to lead the lower house, controlled by the ruling coalition of the
Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party, to hold an overriding
second vote for final Diet approval the following day.
But if the upper house refuses to hold a vote, the lower house cannot hold a
revote until a certain period of time has passed, in line with constitutional
provisions.
In a remark apparently aimed at encouraging Aso to dissolve the lower house for
an election, Koshiishi said during the party's plenary meeting of upper house
members, ''If a new situation emerges in which dissolution is delayed, there's
a good chance that we will change our basic policy.''
Asked about Koshiishi's remarks, Aso told reporters later in the day, ''I will
decide (about dissolution) after considering various factors.''
Susumu Yanase, the DPJ's Diet affairs chief in the upper house, told a press
conference that he thinks discussions with his counterparts from the ruling
parties over the voting schedule at the upper house committee should not be
held during this week.
''We still need time to assess the overall political situation,'' he said.
The government-proposed bill is aimed at extending the temporary law
authorizing Japan's controversial refueling mission to support the U.S.-led
antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan for one year beyond its
expiration on Jan. 15, 2009.