Miyagi Prefectural Parliament Election 2011

The 2011 parliamentary election in the Japanese prefecture of Miyagi was originally planned for the uniform regional elections on April 10, but was postponed as a result of the Tōhoku earthquake (in government institutions: Great East Japanese Earthquake ). It took place on November 13, 2011, the official election period began on November 4. At the same time, local elections were held in five municipalities in the prefecture, including council elections in the independent city of Natori and simultaneous mayor (but due to the lack of a candidate without a vote) and council elections in the city of Onagawa .

The 59 seats in Parliament in Sendai, which had been reduced by 61 after the constituency reform, were up for election thanks to non-transferable individual votes in 16 (previously 17) multi-mandate and seven individual constituencies. In six constituencies, the members of the parliament had already been chosen at the start of the elections - seven Liberal Democrats, one Democrat, and one independent - since no opposing candidates were available and they were elected without a vote.

Including the safely elected MPs, a total of 90 candidates were registered at the start of the election, including 13 Democrats , 33 Liberal Democrats , 20 candidates from other national parties ( Kōmeitō 4, KPJ 7, SDP 3, Minna no Tō 6) and 24 formally independent applicants.

The main theme of the election campaign was reconstruction after the earthquake and tsunami ; the national debate about Japan's possible participation in the TPP free trade area also influenced the election campaign. The measure of the success of the Liberal Democratic Party, which also supports Miyagi's governor Yoshihiro Murai , was the question of whether it (along with conservative independents) can defend an absolute majority of the seats. Before the election, the LDP parliamentary group had 38 members (as of June 2010).

Result

With a significantly lower turnout of 41.72%, the LDP slightly lost seats, but was able to hold a majority together with the Kōmeitō. The Democratic Party, while nominating more candidates than ever before, was unable to improve its position, and two of its incumbents were even voted out.

Overall result of the 2011 parliamentary election

Political party		Candidates	Seats	modification
				for the 2007 election	to before the election
	Democratic Party	13	7th	−2	−2
	Liberal Democratic Party	33	28	−2	−6
	Kōmeitō	4th	2	0	0
	Communist Party of Japan	8th	4th	+2	+2
	Social Democratic Party	3	3	+1	+1
	Minna no Tō	6th	2	(+2)	(+2)
	Independent	24	11	−3	+2
total		90	59	-2 (electoral reform)	-1 (1 vacancy)

Five elected MPs are women, one more than in 2007.

Web links

• Miyagi Prefecture Electoral Oversight Commission
• Miyagi Prefectural Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Call for elections for the 2011 parliamentary elections. ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Miyagi Prefecture Electoral Oversight Commission 
2. ↑ Change to the constituency division for the regular Heisei 23 parliamentary elections ( memento of the original from November 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 117 kB) Miyagi Prefecture Electoral Supervision Commission 
3. ↑ Asahi Shimbun , November 4, 2011: 宮城 県 議 選 が 告示 候補 者 、 戸 惑 い の 第一声
4. ↑ ^{a b} Jiji Tsūshin , November 4, 2011: 90 人 が 立 候補 ＝ 震災 対 応 が 争 点 - 宮城 県 議 選
5. ↑ ^{a b} 県 政 与 党 、 自 公 が 過半数 維持 、 民主 は ２ 減 宮城 県 議 選 . In: Kahoku Shimpō . November 14, 2011, archived from the original on November 15, 2011 ; Retrieved November 14, 2011 (Japanese). 
6. ↑ Miyagi Prefectural Parliament : Members by parliamentary group ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.