Japan conservatives win election: broadcasters

Posted: 16 December 2012 1918 hrs

TOKYO: Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party looked to have secured a convincing majority in Sunday's general election, broadcasters said.

NHK, citing forecasts based on its own exit polls, said the LDP was likely to win 275 to 310 seats in the 480-seat lower house against 55 to 77 seats to be secured by Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

New Komeito party, LDP's coalition partner, is likely to win 27 to 35 seats, NHK said, quoting results from its own exit polls and forecasts.

That could give the pair a more than two-thirds majority in the powerful lower house, enough to override the upper house, in which no party has overall control.

"The LDP sweeps to victory; Abe administration to start," the online edition of the Nikkei newspaper said in a banner headline.

All main broadcasters were in agreement that the LDP would return to power, three years after it was booted out by voters fed up with their more than half-century of almost unbroken rule.

- AFP

[link to www.channelnewsasia.com]