OREANDA-NEWS Shinzo Abe was elected for the third time as Chairman of the ruling liberal democratic party of Japan, so he retained the post of head of government. Japanese TV channels were broadcasting live from the scene.

Abe managed to secure the support of the majority of 810 party members (405 ordinary party members and 405 LDP deputies in both houses of Parliament) who took part in the vote. 807 ballots were recognized as valid. Thus, to win the elections it was necessary to get 404 votes. Shinzo Abe's rival, as in the previous elections six years ago, was Shigeru Isiba – a prominent politician, who in different years held the posts of Minister of defense, Minister of agriculture, Minister of regional development.

329 out of 405 deputies of both houses of Parliament and 224 electors from ordinary party members voted for Abe. Only 73 deputies and 181 electors supported Isiba. Thus, Abe won, gaining a total of 553 votes-more than twice ahead of Isib, who received 254 ballots in his support.

The head of the party that won the parliamentary elections is the Prime Minister of the country. The Chairman of the party is elected for a term of three years. Thus, Shinzo Abe will remain Prime Minister until the next parliamentary elections, which, like the election of the new Chairman of the party, will be held in 2021.

The previous election of the LDP Chairman took place in 2012. Then Abe's main rival was also Isiba. He won the first round against Abe, gaining 199 votes (34 deputies and 165 ordinary party members), while Abe received 141 votes (54 deputies and 87 ordinary party members). However, since none of the candidates received more than half of the votes – 250, a second round was appointed, in which only members of Parliament had the right to vote. With their support, Abe became party Chairman and Prime Minister, as the LDP won the parliamentary elections that year.