TOKYO — Tokyo residents went to the polls on Sunday to pick members of its metropolitan assembly just 19 days before the Olympic Games begin, as surveys showed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was likely to win the vote.
The capital’s election, in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, will have little impact on the long-planned Games, but is important as a bellwether for a lower house election that needs to be held by October.
Suga’s term as party president will expire at the end of September, and a strong showing by his party in the Tokyo poll could help him clinch another term, analysts say.
The head of a ruling party is…
Keep on reading: Tokyo goes to the polls as pandemic-shadowed Olympics loom