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Opposition pressure Mori for early polls

TOKYO: Japan's opposition parties kept up the pressure on Sunday for new Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to call an early election and validate his coalition cabinet amid mounting talk the government will go to the polls in late June.

Many in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the ruling camp's biggest partner, were reportedly leaning toward an election for parliament's powerful Lower House before a July Group of Eight (G8) summit to be hosted by Japan.

But a senior LDP official speaking on Sunday said only that Mori must have a "free hand" to decide the timing of an election which need not be held until October.

Opposition parties and many media argue that Mori, an old guard veteran who took over last week after predecessor Keizo Obuchi suffered a stroke, should call an election soon after clarifying his stance on policy to the public.

Mori - known more for his skills at party factional fighting than any policy expertise - has pledged to carry out measures set in motion by Obuchi, including ensuring economic recovery takes off before tackling Japan's huge public debt as well as pressing on with key structural economic reforms.

Opposition parties say that's not enough.

"What are Mori's own ideas? He has made a lot of gaffes but he has made no clear policy statements," said Naoto Kan, policy chief of the opposition Democratic Party, referring to Mori's penchant for off-the-cuff remarks that offend some people.

"After making clear his policies ... he should seek the verdict of the people," Kan told NHK television.

Japanese newspapers said this weekend that LDP leaders, hoping to capitalise on a sympathy vote for Obuchi, were themselves eyeing a June election, before leaders of the G7 rich nations and Russia gather on the southern island of Okinawa.

And political sources said many LDP members were already in election mode.

Mori has denied he is considering an early election and LDP elite were saying little in public, noting Mori has inherited a hefty agenda, including the need to ensure a fragile economic recover does not falter.

"Is it permissible to dissolve parliament and call an election at such a (critical) time?" said LDP Acting Secretary-General Hidenao Nakagawa on NHK. "I don't think so."

"The main thing is that the prime minister must have a free hand in making the decision," he added.

The budget for fiscal 2000/01 from April has been enacted and other bills to implement it will likely sail through parliament this month, meaning economic policy is set for now.

Domestic media tipped June as the month for an election because of a tight diplomatic schedule, including Mori's trip to Russia to meet President-elect Vladimir Putin in late April, a possible visit to Washington to see President Bill Clinton and a tour of Europe by Emperor Akihito from May 20 to June 1.

Analysts say public opinion polls will play a key role in whether the LDP decides to risk an early judgment from voters who had been losing patience with a government plagued by scandals.

If so, the pro-early election camp got a bit more ammunition on Sunday, when a mini-survey of 300 households showed 47.7 percent supported Mori's cabinet - the same line-up in place under Obuchi - while a respectable 35.7 percent backed the LDP.

But the poll, conducted by Asahi Television, also showed that about half the voters remain unhappy with Mori's ruling coalition, which links the LDP with the Buddhist-backed New Komeito Party and the tiny Conservative Party.

Two other surveys published on Friday also showed relatively robust support for the new cabinet, despite loud media and opposition criticism of the way LDP elite met in secret to decide on Mori before the public even knew Obuchi was ill.

Opposition parties vowed to keep up their attack on the ruling camp's secretive decision-making process and Mori's fuzzy policies in parliamentary questioning beginning on Monday.

The selection process "was like something out of the Stalinist era", said Liberal Party lawmaker Nobuaki Futami, whose party was a ruling coalition partner until last weekend, when party chief Ichiro Ozawa bolted, taking about half his MPs along.-Reuters