GIFU -- A showdown between two female candidates has all eyes fixed on this sleepy conservative city in the Chubu region.

In the Sept. 11 House of Representatives election, former posts minister Seiko Noda, 45, is vying with economist Yukari Sato, 44, a carpetbagger "madonna" recruited by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to compete for the Gifu No. 1 constituency, which covers the city.

Noda has been elected four straight times -- the last three on the LDP ticket. But this time, she has to run as an independent because she was among the party members who voted against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization bills.