Newly-elected Liberal Democratic Party President Taro Aso (R) talks with former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo, capital of Japan, September 24, 2008. Japan's House of Representatives on Wednesday elected Taro Aso as the nation's 92nd prime minister. [Xinhua]

Japan's House of Representatives on Wednesday elected Taro Aso, new president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as the nation's prime minister.

In the voting held at the 480-seat lower house, Aso garnered 337, or 71 percent, of a total of 478 valid ballots.

With the divided Diet, the two chambers will most likely come up with different outcomes. If this is the case, a joint panel of both chambers is to negotiate a solution and its efforts are doomed to failure. Under such circumstances, the election outcome in the lower house will be the final decision of the Diet as specified by the Constitution.

Aso was thus virtually elected the nation's 92th prime minister.

The new president of the Liberal Democratic Party Taro Aso (R) talks with former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo, capital of Japan, September 24, 2008. Japan's House of Representatives on Wednesday elected Taro Aso as the nation's 92th prime minister. [Xinhua]

(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2008)