Mayu Watanabe admitted during the press junket for the entertainment documentary show Jounetsu Tairiku that Rino Sashihara is her biggest concern in this years upcoming general election.

Watanabe who tallied 29,924 votes at the midway point of this years AKB48 Single Senbatsu Sousenkyo trails both Yuki Kashiwagi (33,426 votes) and Rino Sashihara (38,151 votes) by a not so insignificant amount. Watanabe shares “The goal for me this year is to take the first ever consecutive title and the preliminary results are, to say the least, disappointing thus far” she continues “That being said, I’m not surprised because the my title is being sought after last years win.”

When asked about her two friends leading the vote count so far she nimbly answered “They are two of my closest friends and even though we are competing against each other in the election we obviously won’t allow this to affect our friendship. I believe in my fans and I can only pray it goes my way until the final vote counting.” In response to Sashihara’s promise to wear a swimsuit for an entire concert if she takes first place Watanabe held a bitter smile “That sort of thing is impossible.”

The AKB48 Single Senbatsu Sousenkyo [選抜総選挙], otherwise known as the General Election, is an event where fans get to vote for their favorite members to appear in an upcoming AKB48 single. Fans get a chance to vote for any girl in a member of the “48 groups” franchise which is defined this year as any member of AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, and HKT48 along with any current AKB48 members serving overseas terms in JKT48.

The event also serves as an analytics and metrics windfall as the only way to earn a vote is with a purchase of an AKB48 single. This gives management an arguably clean set of data (in other words data is collected by paid customers and not skewed by free voting) to assess popularity within constituants who make purchases within the franchise.

For this years election a total of 80 members can be voted into AKB48′s 41st single, hitting stores this August, being tiered in one of the five sub-units based on rank; 41st Single Senbatsu Members, Under Girls, Next Girls, Future Girls, and Upcoming Girls.

Participation in the General Election is not mandatory so enrollment this year sees a total of 29 girls from the 48 franchise of groups not participating in the annual competition. The final result will be announced at the vote counting event at Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome on June 6