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Sympathy votes after Abe's killing help Japan's ruling party

Sunday, 10 July 2022 10:30 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 10 July 2022 10:30 AM ]

A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Tokyo on July 10, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

The assassination of Shinzo Abe has prompted many Japanese voters to cast sympathy votes in favor of the former prime minister's ruling party bloc.

Japanese voters went to the polls on Sunday for a parliamentary election, with the turnout as of 2 pm (0500 GMT) being 18.8 percent, up from 18 percent at the same point during the last Upper House election in 2019.

According to government data, about 15.3 percent of the voters had cast absentee ballots by Friday when Abe, Japan's longest-serving modern leader, was gunned down during an elections' campaign in the central city of Nara.

The latest initial reports indicate the elections to give Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a definite win, gaining from sympathy.

Abe's assassination has been described by LDP as an attack on the country's democratic political establishment.

Opinion polls before the incident had already pointed to a strong showing for the ruling bloc led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, an Abe protege.

"The ruling LDP-Komeito coalition was already on course for a solid victory," James Brady of the Teneo consultancy said in a note. "A wave of sympathy votes now could boost the margin of victory."

Japan mourns Abe's murder as questions swirl over motives

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

"We just lost Mr. Abe. I would like the LDP to win many votes so that they can run the country in a stable manner," said Sakae Fujishiro, a 67-year-old pensioner who cast his vote for the ruling party in Tokyo's eastern Edogawa ward.

In the meantime, information regarding the attacker remains scant. Police said in a announcement that the gunman who attacked Abe had been identified as Tatsuya Yamagami, 41.

He has been quoted as saying that he had no political motivation for the murder, and simply held a grudge against the premier due to his family's financial problems which were somehow linked to an unspecified organization affiliated with Abe.

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