Japan's ruling coalition won a majority of the seats in the upper house of Parliament in elections yesterday, news reports said, citing unofficial voting results.
Kyodo News service said that three-party coalition of reformist Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won at least 63 of the 121 seats up for election in the 247-member upper house, the weaker of Parliament's two chambers.
Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party had not yet declared victory, but the party was jubilant.
"We are extremely happy about the results so far," said party Secretary-General Taku Yamasaki. "Many voters supported our candidates because of their high expectations for the Koizumi reforms."
National broadcaster NHK had called 62 victories for the coalition, but said projections based on preliminary voting results and exit polls showed the alliance was certain to win additional seats.
Full official results were not to be available until today. But with the ruling coalition headed to a commanding victory, TV anchors were already asking LDP officials about the possibility of the party winning 78 seats -- enough to take control of the chamber on its own.
The vote was widely seen as a referendum on Koizumi's proposed economic reforms. His spectacular popularity had been expected to power the coalition to victory.
Despite high interest in the election, turnout late yesterday was running slightly lower than the last upper house election in 1998. The government said that as of 7:30pm, 47.2 percent of nearly 102 million eligible voters had cast ballots -- down from 50.8 percent at the same time in the 1998 poll.
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