Sato’s Party On Way To Victory

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31726, 9 July 1968, Page 13

Sato’s Party On Way To Victory

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) TOKYO, July 8. Japan's pro-American Liberal Democratic Party today looked certain of another comfortable majority in the 250-seat Upper House of Parliament as election votes continued to be counted.

Yesterday’s polling was for 126 seats in the House, and with nearly two-thirds of the results declared the Liberal Democrats seemed likely to match, and possibly improve on their 71 seats at stake. This will mean that the Prime Minister (Mr Eisaku Stao), the president of the party, is virtually certain of re-election to that office later this year. Of the 80 seats declared, the Liberal Democrats have 54, while the pro-Peking Opposition, the Socialist Party, has only 15, a set-back for them. The pre-election strength of Mr Sato's party in the House was 139, compared with the Socialists* 73. The Liberal Democratic Party’s general secretary (Mr Takeo Fukuda) said the voters evidently preferred the party’s security arrangements with the United States to the

“unarmed neutrality" advocated by the Socialists. Mr Koichi Yamamoto, the Socialists’ general secretary, said he did not think the party’s opposition to the United States-Japan security treaty was responsible for the set-back; there was “a gap between the people’s thinking and actions.” The Clean Government Party (Omei-To), political arm of the Buddhist organisation, Sokagakkai, has retained its nine seats at stake, and independents have three.

The minor opposition Democratic Socialist Party and the Communist Party, which have so far won no seats, are expected to increase their present strengths of six and four respectively. The Japanese Stock Exchange surged ahead this morning in favourable reaction to indications of a Liberal Democratic victory.