Yoshihide Suga poised to win party vote for Japan’s next prime minister

Yoshihide Suga is poised to win Japan's ruling party leadership vote on Monday, virtually guaranteeing him parliamentary election as the country's next prime minister.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is choosing its new leader in an internal vote to pick a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who announced last month that he would resign due to health problems.

The expected victory in the party vote by Suga, currently the chief Cabinet secretary and Abe's right-hand man, all but guarantees his election in a parliamentary vote because of the majority held by the Liberal Democrats' ruling coalition.