Elections for Japan's key lower house of parliament this Sunday they have an activity similar to that in 2021. This is shown by data published by the Ministry of Administration and Communications of the country.
According to this information, voter turnout at 10:00 a.m. local time was 6.33%. For comparison: in 2021, for the same period of time, the voter turnout was 6.32%. At the same time, over 16 million people - 15.8% of the total number of voters - took advantage of the right to early voting before the voting day. This figure has decreased by 1.15% since 2021.
According to polls, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party could lose its majority in the elections even in a coalition with the Komeito party. 1,344 candidates will fight for 289 seats, which will be determined by voting in single-member constituencies and 176 seats, which will be distributed by voting according to the proportional system (party lists).
The ruling party approached the snap election, which new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced before he even took office as head of government, not only with low approval ratings, undermined by a large-scale financial scandal involving the collection of political donations, but also with divisive intra-party moods. In the worst-case scenario for the ruling party, the opposition may form a coalition government, as happened once in 1993.