Okinawa local Election Day today

Today is the Election Day of the local elections 2014. The voting has started at five citiessix6 towns and 13 villages throughout the prefecture. The ballots will be counted to day except for Taketomi Town. Most result will be announced late  tonight.

Especially, the  Nago City assembly election is attracting national attention, whether the group of local parties that support Susumu Inamine, the incumbent mayor of Nago City, keeps its majority.

The number of early ballots was 69,318. accounting for 14.9% of the total eligible voters. Potential voters on the Election Day are expected to number of 464,465. The results of the Okinawa local elections are seen to have an affect on the gubernatorial race in November.

Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima, who has agreed to the MCAS Futenma relocation facility construction in Henoko, and the Naha City Mayor, Takeshi Onaga, who is opposing the Henoko plan have made campaign speeches across Okinawa.

In the local assembly elections 455 candidates vie for 382 seats. There are 302 candidates, of whom new faces count for 137 or 30.1%. Candidates in their 50’s and older account for about 80% of total. The number of female candidates has increased from 15 to 43, however, it’s still less than only 10% of the total number of candidates.

09:11 04 Oct , 2024