Japan government faces big election loss: exit polls [View All]

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Japan government faces big election loss: exit polls
Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:27AM EDT

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's
conservative ruling camp was headed for a devastating
election defeat on Sunday that could well force the
52-year-old leader to resign, media exit polls showed.

The election for half the seats in parliament's 242-member
upper house is the first nationwide electoral test since
Abe took over as prime minister 10 months ago, pledging
to boost Japan's global security profile, rewrite its pacifist
constitution and nurture economic growth.

Public broadcaster NHK said Abe's Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) and its partner, the New Komeito, were seen winning
between 39 and 55 of the 64 seats needed to keep their
majority in the upper house, where half of the 242 seats
are up for grabs. The New Komeito had aimed for 13 seats.

-snip-

Abe's coalition will not be ousted from government if it
loses in the upper house, since it has a huge majority in
the more powerful lower chamber, which elects the premier.

But laws will be hard to enact, threatening policy deadlock.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUST26506820070729