TOKYO, July 10 (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is on track to retain a majority in the upper house with its coalition partner after Sunday’s poll, state broadcaster NHK reports. based on exit polls.
This result was widely expected for elections held two days after the murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a prominent member of the LDP, which caused a great stir in the archipelago.
The LDP and the Komeito party are expected to win between 69 and 83 from 125 contested seats in Sunday’s poll, according to polls by NHK. Final results are not expected until Monday.
(Elaine Lies in Tokyo, Satoshi Sugiyama in Nara, with Kevin Buckland, Yoshifumi Takemoto Kiyoshi Takenaka, Kantaro Komiya and Mariko Katsumura in Tokyo, and Tim Kelly in Nara, Gilles Guillaume for the French version)