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Japan ruling party heads for landslide win
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-12 06:51
TOKYO - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi scored a political triumph Sunday as
the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party headed for a landslide win in an
election touted as a referendum on his push to privatize Japan's cash-swollen
postal system.
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| Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, top, leader of the Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP), places a red rosette on a victorious candidate's
name as the party's acting Secretary General Shinzo Abe, left, and the
party senior leader Toshihiro Nikai clap hands during the ballot counting
for the parliamentary elections at the party headquarters in Tokyo Sunday,
Sept 11, 2005. [AP] | Early Monday, public
broadcaster NHK projected the LDP won 296 seats in parliament's 480-seat
lawmaking lower house, far more than the 241 needed for a majority and the 249
seats it held when Koizumi dissolved the chamber Aug. 8. The most the party ever
held was 300 of the body's then 512 seats in 1986.
Combined with the allied New Komei Party, the LDP-led ruling coalition would
have more than 320 seats — a two-thirds majority that would let it override
votes by the upper house, the body that blocked postal restructuring last month.
Official results were to be announced later Monday for the hotly fought
election, which saw voter turnout jump seven points to 67.5 percent from the
2003 ballot, according to a Kyodo News Agency estimate.
"I had hoped we would win a majority with our party alone, but we did even
better than that," a beaming Koizumi said late Sunday. "I thank the nation for
its support and understanding."
The results keep a staunch ally of President Bush in power. Koizumi is
expected to stand by his dispatch of troops to support the U.S.-led coalition in
Iraq over opposition objections, and he also strongly supports the continued
presence of 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan.
Japan also is one of the United States' negotiating partners in the effort to
disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons.
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