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Mori clings to power
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UNDERCUT by the ruling party kingpins who put him in power and lambasted by Japan's media, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori clung to power yesterday as scenarios swirled for when and how he would bow out.
Pressure has mounted for Mori -- his public support slashed by a string of gaffes and scandals -- to express his intention to resign before or at a convention of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on March 13.
But with Mori and his supporters denying he has any such plan in mind and a backroom LDP power struggle over his successor in full sway, the denouement of the drama had yet to be scripted.
Asked after a meeting late on Wednesday whether Mori would state his intention to resign before or at the LDP gathering, Mori's top lieutenant, Junichiro Koizumi, sternly said: "No."
But calls have mounted in the LDP-led coalition to ditch Mori to improve the three ruling parties' chances in an Upper House election in July, and few see the embattled prime minister hanging onto his post past the end of April.
"Is it a done deal that he will resign? Yes," said Jesper Koll, chief economist at Merrill Lynch Japan. He added that a loss in the Upper House election would not immediately oust the ruling bloc, but would spell legislative deadlock and could prompt an early election for parliament's powerful lower chamber.(SD-Agencies)
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