Projections by Japan’s national broadcaster NHK have shown Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) falling short of a majority for the first time since 2009 after snap elections on Sunday.
The projections leave it unclear whether Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba‘s LDP will be able to achieve a parliamentary majority with its coalition partner, the Komeito party.
According to the NHK figures, the two coalition parties are set to win between 174 and 254 of the 465 seats in the lower house of Japan’s parliament, with 233 needed for a majority.
The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is predicted to win 128 to 191 seats.
If confirmed, the projections leave the make-up of the future government very uncertain as Japan wrestles with economic setbacks and faces growing assertion from China. The LDP may be forced to look beyond Komeito for a third coalition partner if it wants to get its policies through parliament.
In Japan’s previous general election in 2021, the LDP won a majority in its own right, with 259 seats in parliament’s lower house. Komeito had 32.
Snap election follows slush fund scandal
Ishiba called the snap election after the former defense minister was narrowly selected to lead the LDP in September.
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stood down in August, after his government was rocked by a number of scandals.
In late 2023, it was revealed that dozens of LDP politicians had for years been building up secret slush funds to the tune of 600 million yen ($4.1 million, €3.7 million).
Kishida dismissed four members of his Cabinet, and a series of arrests of parliamentary aides and accountants were made as the full scale of the scandal unfolded.
However, voters in the world’s fourth-largest economy have continued to be dismayed by the fallout from the slush fund scandal and have been rankled by rising prices in the country.
Some pre-election polls already suggested that the LDP and Komeito might struggle to get the lower house seats needed for a majority.
With Ishiba having set this threshold as his main objective, missing it would undermine his position in the LDP and could require the ruling party to find other coalition partners or lead a minority government.
zc/ab (AFP, Reuters)