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Japan's largest opposition party elects 1st female leader

Xinhua, September 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Japan's main opposition Democratic Party (DP) elected its first female leader Thursday, as 48-year-old former TV newscaster Renho won the leadership election by a large margin.

Renho, acting president of the DP, won 503 points out of a total of 849 election points, based on votes cast by the party's Diet lawmakers and party-endorsed candidates for national elections in Thursday's election as well as votes cast earlier by local lawmakers, lay members and supporters of the party.

Her two opponents, former foreign minister Seiji Maehara and lower house lawmaker Yuichiro Tamaki, won 230 and 116 points respectively.

Renho, former model and TV newscaster, has been a Upper House lawmaker representing Tokyo since 2004 and served for some time as minister for administrative reform during the DPJ rule between 2009 and 2012.

The Democratic Party was established in March through the merger of Ishin no To and the Democratic Party of Japan.

The new leader, with her term running through to September 2019, will be tasked with setting a new path for the party to regain the trust of voters disillusioned by its predecessor Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) when it was in power between 2009 and 2012. Endit