Japan’s ruling party said Tuesday it will hold a vote on September 27 to choose its new leader after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s surprise announcement that he will be stepping down.

The internal election must be held by the end of September, which marks the end of Kishida’s three-year term and will only include the party’s parliamentarians and its 1.1 million dues-paying members. The winner will be the head of the Liberal Democratic Party and the country’s prime minister as the party and its smaller coalition partner control Japan’s two-chamber parliament.

Last week, Kishida — who took office in October 2021 — said he was bowing out of the race to pave the way for a new leader to form a united LDP to make a fresh start to regain public trust, badly hurt by the party’s extensive corruption scandal, causing his support ratings to dip below 20 per cent. Within days of the prime minister’s declaration, local media has speculated nearly a dozen possible candidates, with some already announcing their interest in leading a party desperate for public support.

A younger lawmaker, former Economic Security Minister Takayuki Kobayashi, 49, was the first to announce his candidacy Monday. Others whose names have been floated around as possible candidates include former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, three of the party’s female veterans, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi and former Gender Equality Minister Seiko Noda, as well as past runner-ups, Digital Minister Taro Kono as well as former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba who is an all-time favorite among the general public.

Each candidate needs support from 20 party lawmakers to run which usually requires time to drum up.