Akashian presidential election, 2020

Akashian presidential election, 2020

27 June 2020 (first round) 4 July 2020 (second round)
Turnout	88,2% (first round) 89,6% (second round)
Candidate Masako Owada Satoru Katayama Party MPP SP Popular vote 5.318.305 3.043.810 Percentage 63,6% 36,4%
Most voted candidate by province (second round)
President before election Keiko Nakayama MPP President after election Masako Owada MPP

A presidential election was held in Akashi on 27 June and 4 July 2020.

Incumbent Keiko Nakayama chose to step down after two terms. With an open race, the competition included a unified centre-right candidate, two left candidates from the Socialist Party and Communist Party, a Future Party candidate, and an independent.

Very early on, it was the Moderate People's Party's Masako Owada who was heavily favoured to win. Masako's cosmopolitan background, fluency in multiple languages, diplomatic career, and elegant image proved greatly attractive to voters, and advantages that the other candidates could not effectively counter.

In the first round, Masako won a plurality of 41%, and established a convincing lead over the second-placed candidate, the SP's Satoru Katayama. This set the stage for Masako's landslide victory in the second round, where she won 63,6% of the vote and majorities in all provinces, repeating Keiko's achievement 5 years before. Masako even won convincingly in Kobi, where Satoru was seen as such an uninspiring candidate that even the CP's candidate, Bjarka, declared she would vote for Masako in the second round.

Result

Presidential election, 27 June and 4 July 2020
Candidate		Party	1st round		2nd round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Masako Owada	Moderate People's Party	3.374.897	41,0%	5.318.305	63,6%
	Satoru Katayama	Socialist Party	2.000.244	24,3%	3.043.810	36,4%
	Tetsu Sasori	Future Party	1.152.404	14,0%
	Bjarka	Communist Party	1.028.932	12,5%
	Koto Kirishima	Independent	674.979	8,2%
Total			8.231.456	100%	8.362.114	100%
Registered voters and turnout			9.332.717	88,2%		89,6%