High drama on the election’s opening day!

There was some opening night drama as parties scrambled to get their proportional representative lists in to the election committee on time. Note to self, if I ever decide to start a new Japanese political party two weeks before the election, make sure I have all my candidates lined up that first week and don’t dither around for a week trying to put together a manifesto. It’s all about personalities in politics anyway. Who needs a platform?

衆院選:未来の比例ト ラブル、全名簿受理 は深夜に

毎日新聞 2012年12月05日 00時54分 （最終更新 12月05日 01時17分）

衆院選比例代表の名簿を探す日本未来の党 副代表の森ゆうこ参院議員（奥右）ら関係 者＝総務省で２０１２年１２月４日午後６ 時半、影山哲也撮影 衆院選が公示された４日、比例代表で日 本未来の党の届け出が遅れるトラブルが あった。午後５時の締め切り直前に総務 省の中央選挙管理会に全国１１ブロック分 の書類を駆け込みで提出したものの、比例 名簿の審査に時間がかかり、全ブロックの 名簿が受理されたのは午後１０時半だっ た。 中央選管では、届け出の締め切り後に未 来の森ゆうこ副代表が急きょ駆けつけ、選 管職員に「責任者に会いたい。話をさせて ほしい」と要求。一時、東北、中国、四国 ブロックの名簿がそろわない事態となり、 森氏が選管側に懸命に受理を求める場面も あった。 比例代表には政党要件を満たさない幸福 実現党を含む１２党が届け出たが、未来の ほかにも自民党の四国ブロック、日本維 新の会の東北ブロックも届け出が午後にず れ込んだ。自民党はいったん比例近畿ブ ロックで届けた元職を名簿から外し、四国 ブロックに届け直す手続きに手間取っ た。維新は宮城１区と重複させる予定だっ た新人が当日になって出馬を断念し、名簿 の修正に追われた。【松尾良、朝日弘行】

http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20121205k0000m010139000c.html

Lower House Elections: JPF’s proportional trouble, full list of names accepted in late night

With the Lower House election campaign kicked off on the 4 th , the Japan Future Party (JPF) had trouble with its proportional representation list arriving late. Just before the cut-off time of 5 pm, the nationally divided 11-blocks worth of documents was hurriedly submitted to the Central Election Administration committee at the Ministry of Internal Affairs but the review of the proportional list took several hours and the all-block list of names wasn’t accepted until 10:30 pm.

At the Central Committee, just after the deadline to submit, JPF’s Deputy Representative Yuuko Mori rushed in and requested to a Committee member, “I want to see someone in charge. I want to speak with them.” At the time, the Touhoku, Chuugoku, and Shikoku block lists were incomplete but Mori pleased with the Committee to accept them.

In all, 12 parties, including the “Achieve Happiness Party” which does not meet the requirements to be a national party, submitted proportional lists. Still, along with JPF, the LDP’s Shikoku block, Japan Restoration Party’s Touhoku block also arrived in the evening. The LDP removed some from its proportional Kinki block and moved them to its Shikoku block, which ended up taking significant time. Restoration had planned a replacement in Miyagi Prefecture’s 1 st District but the new candidate decided not to run this same day so it was forced to revise its list.