Koizumi to stay in power after LDP's landslide victory: report

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party agreed Monday to keep their ruling coalition and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in power after the LDP's landslide victory in Sunday's general election, Kyodo News reported.

Koizumi is certain to be reelected as premier in a special parliament session that will open as early as next week and resubmit the bills to privatize Japan Post -- the centerpiece of his policy agenda -- for passage in the session.

On Sunday, LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe said the question of whether to extend Koizumi's term as LDP president, due to end in September 2006, was expected to become a "significant issue" after the contest.

Although Koizumi ruled out the option, having said he would step down as premier at that time, New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki said he plans to ask Koizumi to stay in office for another year.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, meanwhile, plans to begin preparing to elect a successor to DPJ President Katsuya Okada, who said Sunday night he will resign from his post following his party's crushing defeat in the House of Representatives election.

Investors welcomed the results as stocks opened sharply higher on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday morning. In the first 15 minutes of trading, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average surged 181.40 points, or 1.43 percent, to 12,873.44.

Voter turnout in the 44th lower house election was 67.51 percent in the constituencies and 67.46 percent in the proportional representation section, both up 7.65 percentage points from the previous lower house election in November 2003.

The turnout in the constituencies was the highest since 73.31 percent in 1990.

The LDP captured a total of 296 seats, the second-largest figure in its 50-year history, and up from the 212 held before the election.

Along with its coalition partner, the New Komeito party, the ruling camp took 327 seats, more than a two-thirds majority of 320 seats in the 480-member chamber.

Koizumi dissolved the lower house on Aug. 8 to call the election as the postal privatization bills failed to clear the Diet, with a larger-than-expected number of LDP members joining the opposition in voting against them.

About 103.36 million people were eligible to choose from 1,131 candidates in the 300 single-seat constituencies and the 180-seat proportional representation sector in 11 blocks.

Source: Xinhua