Abe set to get third term as Japan PM: Reports

okyo Dec 14 (IANS) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner Komeito Party were confirmed to have secured 246 seats in the 475-seat lower legislative chamber, according to local reports Sunday.

Voting for Japan’s House of Representatives (the lower house) started at 7 a.m. Sunday at over 48,000 polling stations across the nation, with 1,191 candidates contesting, Xinhua reported.

Abe called the snap elections last month and termed thes as a referendum on his two-year rule and his economic policies dubbed “Abenomics”.

Voting closed at 8 p.m. and the counting of ballots was still on, reports said.

The LDP-Komeito bloc is expected to win two-thirds of the seats in the lower house and the LDP alone could gain over 300 seats, according to exit polls.

The victory will give Prime Minister Abe a third turn as the country’s leader till 2018.

The House of Representatives in Japan is elected for a four-year term.