Japanese PM Shinzo Abe hopeful of big electoral win

Tokyo, Oct 22: As millions of Japanese voters braved typhoon conditions on Sunday for mid-term elections, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to be hopeful and confident of a big electoral victory as endorsement of his policies by the people.

According to AFP news the Japanese are likely to hand over Abe a fresh mandate to revive the world’s third largest economy and press his hard line posture on North Korea.

If the pre-poll predictions prove correct, Abe’s conservative coalition will steer to a definite majority to win a fresh term at the helm. Japan is the key US ally and Asian economic powerhouse in the Asian region.

Polling stations opened across the country at 7:00 am (2200 GMT Saturday) with voters battling high winds and driving rain as an election-day typhoon barrelled towards Japan.

Analysts say that if the weather affects turnout, it is likely to benefit Abe, whose conservative voters are more determined, putting the nationalist blueblood on course to become the country's longest-serving leader.

The near-constant drizzle throughout the campaign has not dampened the enthusiasm of hundreds of doughty, sash-wearing parliamentary hopefuls, who have driven around in minibuses pleading for votes via loudspeaker and bowing deeply to every potential voter.

But with little doubt over the eventual result, the suspense lies in whether Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner will retain its two-thirds majority in the lower house.

Such a “supermajority” would allow Abe to propose changes to Japan’s US-imposed constitution that forces it to “renounce” war and effectively limits its military to a self-defence role.

Abe shocked Japan by calling the snap election a year earlier than expected, urging voters to stick with him in the face of what he termed the dual "national crises" of an ageing population and North Korean tensions.

North Korea has cast a menacing shadow over the short 12-day campaign, after it lobbed two missiles over the northern island of Hokkaido and threatened to “sink” Japan into the sea.

Nationalist Abe has taken a hawkish line during the crisis, binding Japan to the US stance that “all options” are on the table to counter Pyongyang’s nuclear threat and urging maximum pressure via sanctions.