Abe on course for landslide

TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on track for a landslide win in Japan’s upcoming election, the latest survey suggested on Monday, as a new party founded by Tokyo’s popular governor loses momentum.

Abe’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is projected to win as many as 303 of the 465 seats up for grabs in the October 22 election, according to a poll by the Mainichi Shimbun.

Its junior coalition partner Komeito is expected to gain more than 30 seats, allowing Abe’s ruling camp to have a comfortable two-thirds majority in the powerful lower house, the poll suggested. A two-thirds majority in parliament would allow Abe, 63, to push through an amendment to Japan’s pacifist constitution.