Politics A majority of Japanese want LDP out of power, but few trust opposition

A recent Asahi Shimbun telephone survey reveals a growing desire among Japanese voters for a change in governance, with a majority favouring a future administration that does not include the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Conducted on 18-19 May, the survey shows that 54 per cent of respondents prefer a non-LDP administration, an increase from 48 per cent in April, indicating a shift in public sentiment away from the LDP, which only garnered 33 per cent support for continued leadership. This suggests a significant portion of the electorate is seeking alternatives to the current ruling party, despite uncertainties about the viability of opposition parties to assume control effectively.

In a survey conducted in July, voters were almost equally split, with 45 percent seeking a non-LDP administration and 41 percent in favor of an LDP-led administration. The latest survey showed voters are critical about the long-governing LDP, which has been repeatedly ensnared in money-in-politics scandals. Asked if they believe the LDP can change its ways, 77 percent of respondents answered in the negative, compared with 17 percent who answered in the positive. The LDP on May 17 submitted a bill to the Diet to revise the Political Fund Control Law after the party became engulfed in a scandal centered around unreported revenues from fund-raising parties. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they disapprove of the party's efforts for the legal revisions, compared with 29 percent who said they approve. Among those who were not impressed with the party's efforts, 66 percent chose a non-LDP administration.

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However, criticism of the LDP does not necessarily translate into support for opposition parties, according to the survey. Only 19 per cent of voters said they expect the opposition parties to be a counterbalancing force against the LDP, compared with 73 per cent who said they cannot expect such a balance. Even among those who prefer a non-LDP administration, 69 per cent said they could not expect opposition parties to serve as a counterbalance to the LDP.

It's almost as if political parties were like corporations, the only time they work together is to snuff out other competition to their power.
You get party "A" or party "B", parties "C", "D", and "E" might be allowed to exist at some level to give the indication of other options but they never will be allowed to come to power.

It also reminds me of the saying, "Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss".

People may hate who is in power but know they will largely get more of the same from the other option. It leads to indifference and lower voting turnout because people stop believing their vote will result in any meaningful change.

Right after the last election here in the US , there were several videos showing how quick & easy it was to change votes for Trump to votes for Biden. The guy opened up the voting machine and in less than 5 minutes , reprogramed it. Ever since I saw that , I lost faith in our system.

Grandpa Frank said:

Right after the last election here in the US , there were several videos showing how quick & easy it was to change votes for Trump to votes for Biden. The guy opened up the voting machine and in less than 5 minutes , reprogramed it. Ever since I saw that , I lost faith in our system.

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Not sure if that's true or not but regardless there are a lot of eyes on major elections and it's easy to find outliers. The discrepancies in Antrim County were noticed and corrected immediately. But of course that didn't prevent the conspiracy theorists and Trump from using that to push their narrative and ultimately leading to January 6 riots.

Here's the story. And here's a summary:
The election issue in Antrim County, Michigan during the 2020 presidential election involved significant discrepancies in the initial reported results. Here is a summary:

- On election night, Antrim County initially reported unofficial results showing Joe Biden winning the heavily Republican county. This was clearly an error given the county's strong Republican lean.[1][2]

- Over the next few weeks, the county posted multiple revised result sets with large vote swings between candidates, in some cases over 5,000 votes.[1]

- The major discrepancies were eventually resolved, with the final results matching the poll tapes printed from each individual ballot scanner.[2]

- The errors stemmed from the county's mishandling of last-minute ballot design changes and failures to properly update voting machine software and definitions.[1][2] Human errors by county staff and poll workers also contributed.[2]

- While the errors were significant, they were not caused by any voting machine issues or outside interference. Independent audits confirmed the accuracy of the final tallies.[2][4]

- However, the initial errors fueled widespread misinformation and conspiracy theories about the election being "rigged", despite the mistakes being ultimately corrected based on verifiable paper ballot records.[2][3][4]

So in summary, while very problematic reporting errors occurred in Antrim County due to procedural failures, they were resolved through audits, and there was no evidence of fraud or outside manipulation of the voting process.[2][4]

Citations:
[1] https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Pr...trim.pdf?rev=fbfe881cdc0043a9bb80b783d1bb5fe9
[2] https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec22-halderman.pdf
[3] In Antrim County, economic worries replace election conspiracies among voters | Bridge Michigan
[4] Election 2020: Setting the Record Straight - Antrim County, Michigan - Dominion Voting Systems
[5] https://www.michigan.gov/sos/resour...f-antrim-county-presidential-election-results