![Yoshihide Suga won 377 of a total of 534 votes in the internal LDP election [File: Issei Kato/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2020/9/2/d95978b104ef4b3d8ab63bf786c8e864_18.jpg "Yoshihide Suga elected leader of Japan's ruling LDP party")
Yoshihide Suga has been elected leader of Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), paving the way for him to become the country’s next prime minister.
As expected, Suga easily won Monday’s internal vote to pick a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced in August that he would step down due to health problems.
Currently the chief cabinet secretary, Suga took 377 of a total of 534 votes against the two other contenders, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
More updates to follow.
