TOKYO, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Candidates on Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) ticket are poised to win both seats in two lower house by-elections in Tokyo and Fukuoka Prefectures, early exit polls and local media projections showed Sunday.
The LDP's Masaru Wakasa, 59, appears set to win the Tokyo No. 10 constituency seat, which was vacated by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike when she ran and won the gubernatorial election in the capital in July.
Wakasa, a lawyer, has the backing of the LDP's junior coalition Komeito ally and has likely beaten Yosuke Suzuki, 40, a former journalist with Japan's public broadcaster NHK who was backed by the main opposition Democratic Party and two smaller opposition parties.
Jiro Hatoyama, 37, meanwhile, who received the LDP's backing once his victory was all but guaranteed, has likely won the the Fukuoka No. 6 district seat, coming in ahead of Ken Kurauchi, 35, who is secretary to an upper house lawmaker.
Hatoyama, a son of former Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama, who held the seat until he passed away in June, also overcame a challenge from the opposition-backed Fumiko Arai, 49, who used to work at Japan's Consulate General in Chennai, India.
The by-elections on Sunday were the first national elections to be held after the July upper house elections that saw the ruling coalition extend its grip on power in the upper caucus and could provide more impetus for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to dissolve the lower house and call a snap election ahead of the next ordinary Diet session in January.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, led by new leader Renho, who again fielded candidates based on the idea that cooperation with smaller opposition parties may garner more public support and lead to a stronger opposition alliance to counter the Abe-led administration, may now rethink its strategy ahead of the next lower house election, sources close to the matter said Sunday.
Polling stations officially closed at 8:00 p.m. local time and voter turnout stood at 22.73 percent in the Tokyo No. 10 district and 29.04 percent in the Fukuoka No. 6 district, according to the election boards in those areas as of 6:00 p.m. local time, Kyodo News said.
