Japan's Abe wins resounding election victory

[nitpicker]

http://www.dw.com/en/japans-abe-wins-resounding-election-victory/a-41065811

Japan's Abe wins resounding election victory

22.10.2017

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has secured a commanding victory in early parliamentary elections held on Sunday. Abe called for the early vote to reinforce his mandate amid a growing security crisis with North Korea. Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was on track to win 311 seats - 25 more than it currently holds - in the 465-seat chamber in the lower house of parliament, according to the latest projections from TBS, a private broadcaster. That would give it a super-majority with the authority to amend Japan's post-war constitution that was imposed by the United States and requires Tokyo to "renounce" war and limit its military role. Other broadcasters, however, are predicting the LDP will fall just short of the super majority mark.
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The new center-left Constitutional Democratic Party fared slightly better than expected but finished far behind Abe. "The LDP's victory is simply because the opposition couldn't form a united front," said political scientist Mikitaka Masuyama from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

The vote took place amid a powerful typhoon with sustained winds of 180 km per hour (110 mph) raking the island-nation.
(snip)
While the powerful Typhoon Lan isn't expected to make landfall in central Japan until early Monday, the storm still affected voting. Landslides brought on by Lan's heavy rain blocked roads and prevented election officials in western Japan from arriving in time to open a polling station. The incident caused a 20-minute delay in Kochi, reported Japanese broadcaster NHK. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that Lan could cause major flooding in some parts of the country. The storm is expected drop up to 60 centimeters (24 inches) of rain and produce waves of up to 12 meters (39.4 feet) in the Izu islands.
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[Sneederbunk]

1. Honest Abe comes through.