Shigeru Ishiba, former secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party who has declared his bid for party presidency, on Sunday adjusted his remark made the previous day about the fate of LDP lawmakers linked to the party’s slush funds scandal.
“The new leadership team will decide” whether the LDP should endorse such lawmakers as the party’s official candidates in upcoming elections, Ishiba told reporters in Kurayoshi, Tottori Prefecture.
“Someone who has yet to become party chief should not comment with prejudice” on the matter, Ishiba added.
On Saturday, when he announced his candidacy in the party’s Sept. 27 presidential election, Ishiba said that the LDP Election Strategy Committee should thoroughly deliberate on whether lawmakers linked to the scandal deserve to be the party’s official candidates.
This statement had drawn a backlash from former members of the LDP faction previously led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which was at the center of the slush funds scandal involving fundraising parties.
Among others whose names are being floated as possible runners in the election to pick a successor to current LDP chief and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, former internal affairs minister Seiko Noda has also touched on the possibility of the party not officially endorsing scandal-hit lawmakers.