Japan PM Kishida to step down as
scandals prove too much
“Politics cannot function without public trust,” Kishida said in a press conference on Wednesday to announce his decision not to seek re-election as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader.
“I will now focus on supporting the newly elected LDP leader as a rank-and-file member of the party,” he said.
His decision to quit triggers a contest to replace him as president of the party, and by extension as the leader of the world’s fourth-biggest economy.
Kishida’s public support has been sliding amid revelations about the LDP’s ties to the controversial Unification Church and political donations made at party fundraising events that went unrecorded.
But he also faced public discontent over the failure of wages to keep track with the rising cost of living as the country finally shook off years of deflationary pressure.
“An LDP incumbent prime minister cannot run in the presidential race unless he’s assured of a victory. It’s like the grand champion yokozunas of sumo. You don’t just win, but you need to win with grace,” said Koichi Nakano, political science professor at Sophia University.
Who ever succeeds Kishida as the head of the LDP will have to unite a fractious ruling group and tackle the rising cost of living, escalating geopolitical tensions with China, and the potential return of Donald Trump as US president next year.
Thailand PM Srettha Thavisin dismissed by court
‘the show is over’
- The decision reached by the nine-member Constitutional Court has deepened the country’s political turmoil
The decision from the nine-member bench also torpedoed Srettha’s troubled government, which has failed to gain support inside parliament and among the Thai public despite months of efforts to spur economic growth.
Reading the ruling, Judge Punya Udchachon said Srettha must have known Pichit Chuenban, a lawyer for the powerful Shinawatra political clan, had served time in jail and was therefore ineligible for a ministerial post when he appointed Pichit to the cabinet.
The appointment showed Srettha “has no honesty and breached ethical standards”, the judge added.
A downcast Srettha, who did not attend the court hearing, said he was dismayed by the ruling, which hobbled his government after 11 months of turmoil characterised by infighting and economic woes.
“The show is over. I’ve done everything as honestly as possible the past year … I insist that I have never been the source of division and conflict,” he told reporters outside the Government House.
“I’m sad that I’ve been judged and I’m going to go down in history as a prime minister who has breached serious ethics when I’ve been honest all along. Being prime minister has been my greatest honour,” said Srettha, who helmed the Pheu Thai party founded by billionaire ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
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Close China-Thailand ties
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