Japan Parliament re-elects Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister

Japan’s Parliament has re-elected Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister with an overwhelming majority following the conservative leader’s mid-December election triumph.
In the voting, lower house voted for Abe with 328 votes against 73 for acting opposition leader Katsuya Okada.
After he was elected he announced his cabinet members which is same as previous but replacing only Defense Minister Akinori Eto. The cabinet members will take charges of their office after the formal ceremony with Emperor Akihito at the Imperial Palace.
Background
Earlier in December, Mr Abe had called a snap election in order new mandate to get public support to implement  Abenomics, a blend of aggressive monetary easing, public spending and economic reforms.
In this snap election, the ruling coalition led by Mr Abe had won a two-thirds majority amid a low voter turnout.
In this snap election Mr Abe’s party Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had won 290 seats and its ally Komeito had won 35 seats. Together they accounted to a total of 325 seats out of 475 seat of Japan’s Lower House in Parliament.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2014