Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party got off to a good start Sunday as it heads toward this summer's Upper House election, winning the key Hokkaido gubernatorial election in the first round of nationwide local polls, Kyodo News projections showed.
But the process of choosing candidates also revealed significant divisions in the ruling party as it failed to field a single candidate in other gubernatorial races held the same day due to conflicts within some local chapters.
The LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito scored a victory in the race in Hokkaido — the only one among Sunday's 11 gubernatorial elections that pitted a candidate backed by the ruling bloc against a unified candidate for opposition parties.