DPJ-backed Shimizu projected to win Saitama mayoral election

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SAITAMA, Japan, May 24 Kyodo -
Hayato Shimizu, supported by the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, is
certain to win Sunday's Saitama mayoral election, beating five rivals,
including the incumbent backed by the ruling camp, according to Kyodo News
projections.
The election is being closely watched because it is the first major local
election after Yukio Hatoyama became DPJ president earlier this month,
replacing Ichiro Ozawa who had resigned over a fundraising scandal involving an
aide.
Shimizu's projected victory would provide the DPJ with a boost toward a general
election that must be held by October and deal a blow to Prime Minister Taro
Aso, whose Cabinet is seeing low support ratings in public opinion polls.
The mayoral election in Saitama, north of Tokyo was contested by six
independent candidates, with voter turnover registering 42.78 percent, up 7.27
percentage points from the previous mayoral election.
Shimizu, 47, a former Saitama prefectural assembly member, backed by the DPJ's
Saitama prefectural chapter, left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in March.
Incumbent Soichi Aikawa, 66, sought his third four-year term, supported by the
local organizations of the LDP and its coalition partner, the New Komeito
party.
The four other candidates were Fukuyo Nakamori, a 59-year-old former House of
Representatives member from the LDP, Yutaka Matsushita, 64, a prefectural
committee member from the Japanese Communist Party, Nobumi Kusakabe, 50, a
former city assembly member, and Shumei Takahashi, a 52-year-old former special
secretary to the Saitama governor.
==Kyodo