Early turnout appears low in Japanese general election

June 25, 2000
Web posted at: 1:04 p.m. HKT (0504 GMT)

In this story: Voters leaning towards stability over change Coalition seeking at least 254 seats RELATED STORIES, SITES

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japan voted on Sunday in an election expected to return a three-way ruling bloc to power despite widespread dissatisfaction with politics in the world's second largest economy struggling to emerge from recession.

Early turnout looked low and the weather was seen as crucial to whether the huge ranks of floating voters turn out and choose to give the three-way ruling bloc led by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a bloody nose.

A light rain fell on the heavily populated corridor between Tokyo and Osaka, while large parts of Japan went to the polls under sunny skies.

As of 10.00 a.m., voter turnout was 11.85 percent, down 3.04 percentage points from the same point in the 1996 Lower House poll. The full turnout in 1996 was a record low 59.65 percent and the LDP won an easy victory. Election officials are predicting turnout of at least 60 percent this time.

Polls opened at 7:00 a.m. (2200 GMT Saturday) and will close at 8:00 p.m. (1100 GMT) with results expected within hours.

As voters braved the dismal weather at one polling station in the capital, some voters said they were reluctantly throwing their support behind the LDP.

"There aren't any good candidates in this constituency, so I was forced to vote for the LDP candidate, but I don't like the LDP government and the way they run things," Kazuo Yokotani said after casting his ballot in the Shiba Ura section of Tokyo.

More than 100 million Japanese are eligible to vote for 480 seats in the Lower House, with 300 being decided through single-seat races and 180 being doled out by proportional representation based on how well parties do.

Domestic media said last week that voters looked set to opt for stability over change and hand the three-way ruling bloc a victory, despite a dive in the Mori's own popularity.

But with up to half the electorate shunning party affiliation and the majority of those voters still undecided how or whether to vote, analysts said an upset could not be ruled out.

The election will test the well-oiled LDP political machine. Fuelled by public works and cemented by personal ties, the LDP machine runs most smoothly in rural districts, where votes in some cases count more than twice as much as urban ballots.

But the machine has rusted in the cities, where many voters shun party affiliation and feel politics is a world apart.

Middle-aged Tokyo voter Takashi Ueyama registered a protest vote against the LDP, which has held power almost uninterrupted for 45 years.

"I don't think the Communists will win and take power but I voted for them anyway because I don't like the LDP," he said.

A shock defeat for the ruling camp would be a blow for policies that averted economic crisis through heavy spending but created a public debt now the worst among advanced nations.

The LDP has set its sights on winning 229 of the 480 seats in the lower chamber on its own. That could be a make-or-break line for Mori, who was swept into the top job in April after his predecessor Keizo Obuchi suffered a fatal stroke.

Overall, the coalition wants to win at least the 254 seats needed to dominate the chamber, if not the 269 that would control all its panels even without a tie-breaking chairman's vote.

The coalition had 331 lawmakers before the poll was called, but the total number of seats has been cut by 20.

Mori's popularity has been battered by a string of comments suggesting nostalgia for Japan's wartime militarism as well as raising doubts over whether he is intellectually up to leading the world's second-largest economy.

On the final day of campaigning on Saturday, Mori promised LDP experience to ensure economic recovery.

"How can we trust these people (the opposition) with Japan's future?" he said.

The opposition urged voters to deliver a verdict against the partnership forged among the LDP, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito and the tiny New Conservative Party, and its spendthrift ways.

"Mori himself has rejected democracy...what does he think democracy is?" said Yukio Hatoyama, the head of the main opposition Democratic Party, at a rally on Saturday.

Undecided voters hold key going into Japan's Sunday elections
June 23, 2000
Former Japanese PM dies; Nation's leaders pay respects
June 19, 2000
Japan's Empress Dowager Nagako dies
June 16, 2000
Thousands mourn as Japan's Obuchi laid to rest
June 8, 2000
Opposition blasts Japan's P.M. for dissolving lower Parliament
June 2, 2000

Guide to the Japanese Government
Welcome to Prime Minister's Office
Welcome to Prime Minister's Official Residence
The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.