On Sunday, voters in Japan went to the polls and helped the country’s former ruling party return to power with a huge comeback. The comeback was helped by a large amount of voter anxiety over the stagnant economy and the increase in global strength of their neighbor China.
The former ruling party, the Liberal Democrats, enjoyed a huge victory that helped put the ex prime minister in the country, Shinzo Abe into power once again. He is expected to be tougher towards their neighbor China and attempt to prevent Japan from ending nuclear power, despite the tragic disaster that happened last year after the country was rocked with a tsunami and earthquake.
Television coverage of the elections gave 296 seats out of the 480 available to the LDP in the lower house of Japan. LDP’s ally in the government, New Komeito Party was expected to end with 32 seats.
This would mean the two parties together would have the 67% majority that is required to overrule Japan’s upper house. This could bring an end to the many deadlocks that stymie the government and have done so for a number of years.
For the fifty-four years between 1955 and 2009, the LDP controlled the government through a close to monopoly rule. During the 2009 elections, they lost power to the Democratic Party, which is headed by Yoshihiko Noda.
However, in these elections, voters expressed their desire for change because of the way the economy had been handed the way the government handled the natural disaster last year. Polls indicated the Democratic Party would only win 70 seats in Sunday’s election.
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