Wakayama 3rd district

Wakayama 3rd district is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It is located in Wakayama Prefecture and consists of Arida, Gobo, Shingu, and Tanabe cities and the Arida, Hidaka, Higashimuro, and Nishimuro districts. As of 2009, 305,147 eligible voters were registered in the district.[1]

Since its creation in 1996, Wakayama 3rd district has been represented by Toshihiro Nikai for the New Frontier Party (NFP), the Conservative Party, the New Conservative Party and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Nikai, a former Transport, Hokkaido and Economy minister, is a member of the LDP's Ibuki faction since his own faction of former Conservative Party members dissolved in 2009.

Kimiyoshi Tamaki, a longtime Wakayama prefectural representative, failed to unseat Nikai in the 2009 election that brought the Democratic Party a landslide win. He was safely elected in the Kinki proportional representation block where all Democratic party list candidates managed to secure a seat in the House.

Before the 1994 electoral reform, the area had been part of Wakayama 2nd district where three, later two representatives were elected by single non-transferable vote.

Election results

2009[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
LDP (Kōmeitō support) Toshihiro Nikai 117,237
DPJ (NPP support) Kimiyoshi Tamaki 102,342
Happiness Realization Party Yūko Minato 5,634
Turnout 226,653 72.48
2005[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
LDP Toshihiro Nikai 145,735
DPJ Terushige Manabe 53,532
JCP Minoru Ueda 20,140
Turnout 226,653 72.48
2003[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
New Conservative Party Toshihiro Nikai 148,274
JCP Minoru Ueda 40,930
Turnout 205,613 65.26
2000[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Party Toshihiro Nikai 138,527
Independent Riki Azuma 55,546
JCP Tsutomu Hayashi 25,516
1996[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
NFP Toshihiro Nikai 115,681
LDP Minoru Noda 101,074
JCP Yasuhisa Hara 18,155

References