The Guardian :
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has secured a strong mandate for his hard line against North Korea and room to push for revision of the country’s pacifist constitution after his party crushed untested opposition parties in Sunday’s general election.
Abe’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner Komeito were on course to win 311 seats, keeping its two-thirds “supermajority” in the 465-member lower house, an exit poll by TBS television showed. Some other broadcasters had the ruling bloc slightly below the two-thirds mark.
After a day that saw millions of voters brave driving rain and strong winds brought on by Typhoon Lan, Abe’s election gamble appeared to have paid off, after he called the vote more than a year earlier than scheduled.
An initial challenge by the Party of Hope, formed only late last month by the populist governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, petered out as prospective supporters stayed with
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has secured a strong mandate for his hard line against North Korea and room to push for revision of the country’s pacifist constitution after his party crushed untested opposition parties in Sunday’s general election.
Abe’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner Komeito were on course to win 311 seats, keeping its two-thirds “supermajority” in the 465-member lower house, an exit poll by TBS television showed. Some other broadcasters had the ruling bloc slightly below the two-thirds mark.
After a day that saw millions of voters brave driving rain and strong winds brought on by Typhoon Lan, Abe’s election gamble appeared to have paid off, after he called the vote more than a year earlier than scheduled.
An initial challenge by the Party of Hope, formed only late last month by the populist governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, petered out as prospective supporters stayed with
the far more established and conservative LDP.
“The situation in the world is not stable in many aspects and I believe the LDP is the only party we can depend on,” Kyoko Ichida, a Tokyo resident, said after casting her vote.
Other voters registered their opposition to Abe by opting for the newly formed Constitutional Democratic party (CDP).
