On September 28, the new president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was elected. There were three candidates. The total number of votes cast was 499 and Sadakazu Tanigaki (谷垣禎一), 64 years old gained 300 of them and became the 24th president of the LDP. He served as Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi (小泉純一郎) and as Minister of Construction and Transport in the cabinet of Yasuo Fukuda (福田康夫).
After the World War II between 1955 and 2009 the LDP had been a ruling party in the Japanese politics, and the president of the LDP had been the Prime Minister at the same time.
However because of the big lost of the last general election they became the opposition party, and the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama (鳩山由紀夫) has become the Prime Minister since September 16.
Mr. Tanigaki is the second president who could not be the Prime Minister after Yohei Kono (河野洋平) in 1993. His term will be until the end of September of 2012.
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