Roundup: LDP-backed candidate wins Ginowan mayoral elections amid U.S. base relocation logjam

Incumbent Atsushi Sakima who is backed by the Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led bloc will secure a second four-year term as the mayor of Ginowan City, Okinawa Prefecture, exit polls showed on Sunday evening.

Sakima, 51, is widely believed to support the central government's plans to relocate a controversial U.S. military base within the prefecture, although has not directly referenced the matter, campaigned on a platform of at least ensuring the base's shutdown.

The results will be a possible boost to the plans of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government who plan to see the base relocated to a coastal region of the island, despite the ongoing protests of officials and islanders who wish to see their base-hosting burdens lifted.

Abe pegged his hopes on Sakima winning the election so as to speed up the impasse between the regional and central government and derail Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga's ceaseless efforts to block the relocation plans. The victory of the LDP-backed candidate, whose campaign was designed by the ruling camp in Nagatacho, Tokyo, was also of particular importance to Abe who ahead of this summer's upper house election in which the LDP are looking to consolidate their power.

The ongoing base relocation deadlock, however, has irked the United States, as the central government continues to try and appease its ally by giving its assurances that the relocation and construction of the new base will go ahead as per a previous bilateral agreement between the two countries, that will still be subjected to obstacles from Okinawan officials, civic groups and regular citizens ahead of the summer elections.

The relocation, Washington hoped, would be predicated on the acceptance and understanding of the people of Okinawa to the base's move, which has and continues to not be the case, and the standoff between the island prefecture and Tokyo is set to continue.

Washington, as has been the case in the past under previous administrations, could become increasingly vexed with Tokyo over the issue, as polls have shown that Abe has failed to sufficiently explain to, and gain the support of Onaga, as well as the people of Okinawa, of the central government's true stance on the base's relocation, despite intensive talks being held between both parties on the issue.

Abe, whose public popularity plummeted following his forcing of unconstitutional war bills into law in a bid to expand the nation's military scope, has said the building of a new base, partly on reclaimed land from the waters of Oura Bay in Henoko, remains the only solution for the relocation of the Futenma base.

Shimura, a 63-year-old former prefectural government employee and Sakima's only opponent in the election mayoral race was campaigning to see the base relocation halted, the base shut down, land returned to Okinawa, and the base preferably relocated outside the prefecture.

Shimura's victory would have been a boon to Onaga, as the prefectural and central government are currently locked horns in multiple legal issues pertaining to the base relocation and repeated moves by Onaga to block and delay proceedings, which has led to both sides sueing each other.

Both Onaga and Shimura held the stance that the central government's plans are unacceptable and that Abe is overly fixated on the base relocation to the coastal Henoko region as being the only solution and should be more empathetic to the base hosting burdens of the Okinawa people.

In 1996, the Japanese and U.S. governments inked an accord to close down the Futenma base and return land occupied by the facility to Okinawa, with the transfer of the base function's aimed partly at reducing the burden on Okinawa and its people.

The majority of Japanese people, polls have shown, including those on the mainland and on Okinawa island, still believe Abe and his administration are mishandling the base relocation issue, with the generality in Japan's southernmost prefecture wanting the new base relocated off the island at a bare minimum, and out of Japan if possible.

Okinawans have consistently called on both prefectural and central governments to see their base-hosting burdens lifted, amid instances of numerous military-related accidents, such as the August 2004 incident of a Marine CH-53D Sea Stallion heavy assault transport helicopter crashing into the Okinawa International University in Ginowan.

Other local distresses have been connected to increasing pollution caused by the military and a number of globally-reported crimes committed by U.S. military personnel, including the rape of an elementary schoolgirl in Okinawa by three U.S. servicemen in 1995.

Okinawa hosts some 75 percent of U.S. bases in Japan, yet the tiny island accounts for less than 1 percent of the county's land mass.

According to the Election Commission of Ginowan City, voter turnout was 40.4 percent, some 1.79 percent lower than that of the previous mayoral elections for the city, as of a few hours before the polls closed on Sunday evening.

But those who opted to cast their votes early, which comprises about 20 percent of the electorate, were more than double that of the previous election, according to public broadcaster NHK.

According to the election commission, there were 72,526 eligible voters.

Polls officially closed at 8:00 p.m. Sunday at the 16 polling stations across the city and official counting of ballots would not begin before 9:00 p.m. the commission said. Enditem