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Mon,Dec 15,2014
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Japanese PM to decide on cabinet lineup

(Xinhua)    18:52, December 15, 2014
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TOKYO, Dec. 15 -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he will make a quick decision on the lineup of his new cabinet after Sunday's election, which saw a landslide victory for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its small Komeito partner.

Abe made the remarks during a press conference as local reports said all cabinet members and the LDP executives will likely retain their post.

Scandal-hit former and incumbent ministers, including Yuko Obuchi and Midori Matsushima, all secured their seats in the lower house.

The prime minister said revising Japan's constitution is a goal that the LDP pursues for long and the ruling bloc will push forward security-related legislation and try to gain more public understandings on the issue of constitution amendment.

As the ruling coalition secures a more than two-thirds majority in the powerful chamber, it could approve bills rejected by the upper house.

Abe also said he will continue his economic policy mix, dubbed "Abenomics" and will set the economic issues as his top priority.

The LDP gained 290 seats in the election and recognized one non- affiliated candidates who also secured his seat as the LDP's candidate after the vote. Plus Komeito's 35 seats, the ruling bloc now has a combined 326 seats in the 475-seat chamber.

Voter turnout in the election dropped to a record low of 52.66 percent in postwar period, down 6.66 percentage points from the 2012 poll.

However, two groups of lawyers filed lawsuits on Monday with Japanese high courts, seeking to nullify the results of Sunday's election due to the vote disparity in weight across constituencies.

The vote weight gap based on the number of eligible voters on Sunday stood at 2.13 times between Tokyo's No. 1 single-seat constituency with 492,025 voters and Miyagi Prefecture's No. 5 district with 231,081 voters, Japan's Kyodo cited government data as reporting.

In November last year, the Supreme Court ruled that disparities of up to 2.43 times in the weight of votes in the 2012 lower house election were "in a state of unconstitutionality," but opted not to nullify the election results.

Abe, also president of the LDP, is expected to be re-elected as the country's 97th prime minister during a special parliamentary session beginning on Dec. 24.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Editor:Ma Xiaochun,Bianji)
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