Voters in Japan go to polls in shadow of former premier’s assassination

By Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) – Voters in Japan on Sunday went to the polls for a House of Councillors election in the shadow of last week’s assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which shocked the nation and the whole world.

Elections are held for half of the upper house every three years.

Voting is scheduled to end at 8 p.m. local time (1100GMT), and voters will cast two ballots – one for electoral district representatives, and one for proportional representation.

Parliamentary candidates’ campaigning for six-year terms officially ended on Saturday night.

According to the Kyodo News Agency, more than 30% of the 545 candidates in the elections are women, the highest yet.

Komeito, with its partner in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, currently holds 137 seats.

The opposition front, led by the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), has 95 seats in the parliament.

Abe, 67, the longest-serving premier in Japanese history, was killed by a 41-year-old gunman early Friday.

According to sources investigating the killing, the assassin Tetsuya Yamagami admitted to police that he had tried to make a bomb. He also claimed to have "made multiple guns," according to Kyodo.

Police chief Tomoaki Onizuka said there were “undeniable” security flaws at the event where the former prime minister was gunned down.

“As the regional police chief responsible for safety and security of the region, I took necessary steps and built structures for security and guarding,” he said, while admitting there had clearly been problems.

According to the same outlet, Yamagami initially intended to attack the leader of a religious group because he believed his mother had gone bankrupt as a result of her contributions to it.

Ahead of Sunday's House of Councillors election, the suspect had repeatedly visited locations where Abe delivered campaign speeches, the sources added.