THE ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had achieved its election target of 235 seats yesterday but was still short of a majority, with a coalition the likely outcome, according to the Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto.
The conservative LDP, which lost its majority in 1993 elections for the first time in 38 years, was certain of winning at least 239 seats in the new 500 seat lower house, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation reported.
"We performed well and we can say we won," the LDP secretary general, Mr Koichi Kato, said, adding that the party would soon hold talks with its junior coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and New Party Sakigake. But Mr Hashimoto, who is LDP president, said earlier yesterday that he did not want to "limit" co operation to the SDP and Sakigke.
The LDP campaign chief, Mr Tsutomu Shirakawa meanwhile said that Mr Hashimoto was likely to remain as Prime Minister if the target was achieved. "If we can exceed 235 seats we should be able to re elect Hashimoto as Prime Minister" he told reporters at the party's election headquarters.
The election turn out appeared to have fallen to a post war low of about 59 per cent, down from the previous all time low of 67.26 at the last election in 1993.
Fine weather and widespread voter apathy were said to be the main factors behind the record low turn out.
Asked to comment on the outcome, Mr Hashimoto said: "I haven't really thought about it yet but because we don't have a majority in the upper house, we have to co operate with the other parties.
The public network NHK projected, at least 155 seat's for the opposition New Frontier Party and 48 for the new Democratic Party, formed last month by defectors from the SDP and Sakigake. It also said that the Japan Communist Party was assured of winning 25 seats and the SDP 14 seats.
The SDP's performance was its worst since 1949, the last time it took part in a coalition government. The biggest opposition party for four decades, it won 70 seats in 1993, half the number it received in the 1990 election.
In the outgoing parliament, the LDP held 211 seats while the opposition New Frontier Party of Mr Ichfro Cizawa held 160 seats. The new Democratic Party had 52 seats, the SDP had 30, following the recent defections and the Communists 15.
Under a new electoral system adopted in 1994, some 98 million eligible voters were electing 390 legislators from single seat districts, with the remaining 200 elected by proportional representation. The outgoing lower house was elected from multi seat constituencies.