Record Low Turnout in Japanese House of Representatives Election: Reports

The voter turnout in the election to the lower house of Japan's parliament was 52.7 percent, becoming the lowest in the history of Japanese elections since 1947, Kyodo news agency reported, summarizing the data from local election commissions.

MOSCOW, December 14 (Sputnik) — The turnout was six percentage points lower than during the previous election.

According to the exit polls, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan won the election with more than 50 percent of the seats. Its traditional coalition partner, the Komeito party, secured 28 seats. Meanwhile, the LDP's major opposition, the Democratic Party, received only 40 seats.

Forty-eight thousand polling stations opened Sunday at 7 a.m. local time (22:00 GMT, December 13) in Japan, with 1,191 candidates competing for 475 seats.

In November, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his decision to dissolve the lower house and to call a snap parliamentary election. This move was taken in order to receive a vote of confidence to conduct economic and financial reforms proposed by the prime minister. Abe's reforms, also known as Abenomics, are aimed at pulling the Japanese economy out of stagnation, as well as at ending deflation.