Koizumi re-elected as prime minister

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Koizumi re-elected as prime minister

Liberal Democratic Party President Junichiro Koizumi was reelected prime minister Wednesday following the ruling coalition's victory in the Nov. 9 general election.

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Liberal Democratic Party President Junichiro Koizumi was reelected prime minister Wednesday following the ruling coalition's victory in the Nov. 9 general election.

Of the 479 votes cast at the 480-seat House of Representatives, 281 went to Koizumi, 186 to Naoto Kan, president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and nine to Kazuo Shii, head of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), while three votes were left blank in the balloting held at the outset of a special nine-day session.

The ruling coalition of Koizumi's LDP and the New Komeito party controls a reduced but comfortable majority in the lower chamber through the election. The LDP holds 245 seats and the Buddhist-backed New Komeito has 34.

Koizumi was also reelected premier in the House of Councillors, in which the coalition also has a majority. The upper house was not involved in the recent election.

The prime minister will also give a press conference in the afternoon to renew his pledges to deal with mounting economic and diplomatic issues.

The lower house members also picked as speaker Yohei Kono, an LDP veteran who formerly served as party president and foreign minister. Kansei Nakano, a senior DPJ member, took the post of vice speaker. The DPJ holds 177 seats.

Source: Kyodo

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