TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party is on course for a landslide win in the December 14 general election, opinion polls published yesterday showed.
His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) could sweep more than 300 of the 475 seats in the lower house of parliament, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and Kyodo News said in their pre-election surveys.
That would mean the LDP, which held 295 seats before Abe dissolved the powerful chamber last month, will maintain its two-thirds supermajority with junior coalition partner Komeito, the Nikkei newspaper said.
Sixty-year-old Abe still has two years left of his mandate, but called the vote in the wake of his decision last month to delay a sales tax hike due for October 2015.
But, media said, the predicted victory may be less a resounding endorsement of the prime minister and his signature “Abenomics” programme, than a symptom of the parlous state of the opposition and the lack of credible alternative on offer.
Chief opponents the Democratic Party of Japan are expected to gather around 70 seats. AFP
