Japanese voters showed unprecedented interest in the upcoming lower house election and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) still was running ahead of the major opposition party in support rating, a Yomiuri Shimbun survey said Monday.

The number of voters showing great deal of interest in the election scheduled for Sept. 11 stood at 61 percent, marking a record high in the fourth lower house election since the single- seat constituency system was introduced. In the latest three elections, the highest interest rate appeared before the 2003 election at 44 percent.

Voter interest has been sparked by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's strategy of portraying the election as a referendum on the postal privatization and his fielding of the so-called " assassin" candidates, who were picked to compete head-on with LDP lawmakers who voted against Koizumi's postal reform bills, the newspaper said.

Including the 25 percent of those showing some interest in the election ,the number of eligible voters who were interested in the election stood at 86 percent.

A total of 75 percent of polled voters said they would definitely be voting.

The survey found that 35 percent of voters would vote for ruling party candidates in single-seat constituencies, and 22 percent would support the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

In proportional representation blocs, 37 percent of pollees said they would back the LDP and 23 percent would vote for the DPJ.

As for swingers, only 14 percent and 15 percent would favor the LDP in single-seat and proportional constituencies respectively, down three points and one points.

The DPJ maintained a 17 percent support rate in the single-seat constituencies, but lost 4 points in the proportional blocs.

Meanwhile, the approval rating for the Koizumi Cabinet stood at 46.1 percent, almost the same as the 46.8 percent logged in the last election, the survey said.

Source: Xinhua