Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's chances of being re-elected in the Sept. 20 Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election are high, but he is unlikely to win a landslide victory as he did in the last election due to the new voting system the party has adopted.
In the April 2001 election, Koizumi secured 123 of the 141 local chapter votes. Under that system, each of the LDP's local chapters was allocated three votes, with the top candidate taking all three votes regardless of the margin of victory.
Under the new rules, adopted in January 2002, local chapter votes will be counted in proportion to the number of votes a candidate receives from party members in each chapter.