Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) gained a landslide victory in Sunday's general election by capturing 296 seats in the 480-seat House of Representatives.

Coupled with the 31 seats gained by LDP's ruling coalition partner, the New Komeito party, the country's governing bloc won a total of 327 seats in the general election, while the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) saw a staggering setback in the first decline since its founding in 1996.

According to NHK TV station, the DPJ suffered a rout in the election, gaining only 113 seats, slumping from the 177 seats it achieved in the last general election in 2003.

The distribution of the chamber's 480 seats also include nine seats of Japanese Communist Party, seven of Social Democratic Party, six of three new parties (People's New Party, New Party Nippon and New Party Daichi) and 18 of Independents.

With the LDP being assured of a majority on its own, Koizumi is expected to be reelected as premier in a special parliament session to be convened as early as next week and resubmit the bills to privatize Japan Post -- the centerpiece of his policy agenda -- for passage during the session.

Appearing on a TV election program, Koizumi claimed victory fo rthe LDP and thanked the public for "the situation in which we can attain more achievements than merely the slim majority by the LDP alone, which was the best we had hoped for."

LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe said whether to extend Koizumi's term as LDP president, due September next year, is expected to be a "significant issue" after the contest. Koizumi, however, ruled out the option, having said he would step down as premier at that time.

DPJ President Katsuya Okada indicated he will step down as head of the largest opposition party, saying his plan to do so if his party fails to take power "has not changed" and that he will make a final decision after seeing the election outcome.

The results of the 44th lower house election will be finalized early Monday. Most of the over 5,300 polling stations across Japan closed at 8 PM (11:00 GMT), having opened at 7 AM (22:00 GMT)

About 103.36 million people were eligible to choose from 1,131 candidates for the powerful lower house's 480 seats, to which 300 are elected in single-seat constituencies and 180 in the 11 proportional-representation blocks.

The two major parties -- the LDP and the DPJ -- vied for a seat in 280 of the 300 districts across Japan but media polls showed Koizumi's camp took the lead in attracting voters through the 12 days of official campaigning that began Aug. 30.

The LDP has governed Japan for most of the past 50 years, except for 11 months beginning in July 1993. The DPJ had been making inroads and did better than the LDP in proportional-representation voting in the previous election in November 2003 but the LDP is anticipated to prevail this time.

Koizumi dissolved the lower house on Aug. 8 to call the election as the postal privatization bills failed to clear the Diet, with a larger-than-expected number of LDP members joining the opposition in voting against them.

(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2005)