According to analysts, the governing coalition may receive an avalanche of sympathy votes because of Shinzo Abe’s firing.
Today, Sunday, Japan will vote for representatives to the upper house of the parliament. The polling stations opened early in the morning Finnish time.
A little more than half of the representatives of the 245-seat upper house will be elected in Sunday’s elections. Representatives to the Upper House are elected for six years at a time.
The elections are overshadowed by the former prime minister Shinzo Abe death. Abe, who represented the ruling party LDP, was shot on Friday at an election event in the city of Nara.
Even before the assassination, opinion polls predicted strong support for the governing coalition, and according to analysts, the coalition may receive an avalanche of sympathy votes because of Abe’s death.
According to Japan’s Ministry of the Interior, by 11 a.m. local time in the morning, 10.44 percent of eligible voters had gone to vote. In the previous parliamentary elections in 2019, the figure was 9.7 percent at the same time.
Polling stations close at 20:00 local time. The media are expected to publish the results of their door-to-door surveys around the same time.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to visit Japan on Monday to offer his condolences over Abe’s death in person. He is scheduled to meet senior officials during his visit.