If cyber politics had called the shots, Health and Welfare Minister Junichiro Koizumi would have been the new president of the Liberal Democratic Party.
In a virtual vote on a Web page managed by Tokyo resident Tadashi Ikeura, Koizumi won 297 of 502 ballots cast by Net surfers, defeating Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama with 185 votes and new LDP President Keizo Obuchi with 20 votes.
"Obuchi lost by a large margin in our election, showing a large disparity between public will and the LDP race," said Ikeura, a 38-year-old technical translator who started the site out of frustration that the public cannot directly choose the prime minister under the current political system.