Upon the end of Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki's term of office, a Party presidential election was held on September 26 at the Party headquarters, and Mr. Shinzo Abe was elected the 25th president of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The election was contested by five candidates: former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, former Policy Research Council Chairman Shigeru Ishiba, former Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara, and Acting-Chairman of the Policy Research Council Yoshimasa Hayashi.

A total of 498 ballots were cast in the first round of the election: 198 by LDP Diet members including 116 members of the House of Representatives and 82 members of the House of Councillors, and 300 ballots allocated to each local party chapter in accordance with the number of the Party members. No-one won a majority in the first-round of voting, and a runoff voting with the top two candidates was conducted in which only Diet members cast their votes.　 In the runoff, Mr. Abe defeated Mr. Ishiba 108 to 89 and became a new Party president.

Profile of Shinzo Abe

• Born September 21, 1954, in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
• Graduated from Seikei University majoring in Law.
• Entered Kobe Steel, Ltd.
• First elected to the House of Representatives from Yamaguchi 4th district in 1993.
  Since then reelected five times.
• Previously served as Prime Minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary, Party Secretary-General.
• Grandfather is former Prime Minister Shinsuke Kishi, and his father is former　Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe.