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186457
Sat, 06/04/2011 - 18:40
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https://oananews.org//node/186457
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DPJ to forgo punishing Ozawa despite no-confidence vote abstention
TOKYO, June 4 Kyodo -
The Democratic Party of Japan leadership plans to refrain from punishing its former leader Ichiro Ozawa for the time being over his abstention of a parliamentary vote Thursday on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet, DPJ sources said Saturday.
The DJP leadership is concerned that if they strip Ozawa of his DPJ membership, Ozawa loyalists may react sharply to such action, the sources said.
Ozawa did not show up at the House of Representatives plenary session Thursday and thus abstained from the vote on the motion submitted by opposition parties led by the Liberal Democratic Party in an attempt to topple the Cabinet.
In February, the DPJ leadership already decided to suspend Ozawa's party membership following his indictment over a political funds report falsification scandal.
There are voices within the leadership calling for an outright banishment of Ozawa, who had encouraged many DPJ lawmakers to vote in favor of the no-confidence motion.
Although the leadership will start Monday a series of hearings with 15 DPJ legislators -- including Ozawa -- who failed to show up at the parliamentary session, it will proceed carefully in light of a simmering intra-DPJ standoff over the motion, the sources said.
For the 14 lawmakers other than Ozawa, the leadership is leaning toward suspending their party membership unless they had good reason to skip the vote, such as illness, they said.
After the lower house voted down the motion, DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada proposed to oust Ozawa in a meeting with executives including pro-Ozawa bigwig Azuma Koshiishi, leader of the caucus of DJP legislators in the House of Councillors.
But because Koshiishi and others strongly opposed the idea, Okada withdrew his proposal, the sources said.
At an ensuing meeting of the ruling party's Standing Officers Council, members decided to strip two lawmakers who voted in favor of the motion of their party membership, but deferred a decision on the 14 lawmakers who abstained as some officers called for treating them leniently.
On Feb. 22, the DPJ leadership decided to suspend the party membership of Ozawa -- a chief architect of the party's ascent to power in the 2009 general election -- until a court ruling on the fund scandal is finalized.
Last October, a judicial panel of citizens determined that Ozawa should be prosecuted on the grounds he is strongly suspected of playing a part in the alleged falsification of political fund reports by his fund management body.
==Kyodo
The Democratic Party of Japan leadership plans to refrain from punishing its former leader Ichiro Ozawa for the time being over his abstention of a parliamentary vote Thursday on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet, DPJ sources said Saturday.
The DJP leadership is concerned that if they strip Ozawa of his DPJ membership, Ozawa loyalists may react sharply to such action, the sources said.
Ozawa did not show up at the House of Representatives plenary session Thursday and thus abstained from the vote on the motion submitted by opposition parties led by the Liberal Democratic Party in an attempt to topple the Cabinet.
In February, the DPJ leadership already decided to suspend Ozawa's party membership following his indictment over a political funds report falsification scandal.
There are voices within the leadership calling for an outright banishment of Ozawa, who had encouraged many DPJ lawmakers to vote in favor of the no-confidence motion.
Although the leadership will start Monday a series of hearings with 15 DPJ legislators -- including Ozawa -- who failed to show up at the parliamentary session, it will proceed carefully in light of a simmering intra-DPJ standoff over the motion, the sources said.
For the 14 lawmakers other than Ozawa, the leadership is leaning toward suspending their party membership unless they had good reason to skip the vote, such as illness, they said.
After the lower house voted down the motion, DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada proposed to oust Ozawa in a meeting with executives including pro-Ozawa bigwig Azuma Koshiishi, leader of the caucus of DJP legislators in the House of Councillors.
But because Koshiishi and others strongly opposed the idea, Okada withdrew his proposal, the sources said.
At an ensuing meeting of the ruling party's Standing Officers Council, members decided to strip two lawmakers who voted in favor of the motion of their party membership, but deferred a decision on the 14 lawmakers who abstained as some officers called for treating them leniently.
On Feb. 22, the DPJ leadership decided to suspend the party membership of Ozawa -- a chief architect of the party's ascent to power in the 2009 general election -- until a court ruling on the fund scandal is finalized.
Last October, a judicial panel of citizens determined that Ozawa should be prosecuted on the grounds he is strongly suspected of playing a part in the alleged falsification of political fund reports by his fund management body.
==Kyodo
