The year's biggest political event -- the race to pick the next Liberal Democratic Party president and thus the successor to Prime Minis ter Junichiro Koizumi -- officially kicks off Sept. 8 for a Sept. 20 vote. Here are some questions and answers:

Who can vote in the election?

Only LDP members are eligible, including lawmakers and other ranks, as long as they are over age 18 and have paid party membership fees for two consecutive years. The LDP limits its membership to Japanese only. Nearly 1.06 million party members are eligible to vote in the upcoming poll, though their votes do not carry the same weight as those cast by the party's Diet members.