ANKARA 

Japan is heading to a snap general election on Sunday to elect lawmakers to the House of Representatives, the 465-seat lower house of parliament, known locally as the National Diet.

There are over 45,000 polling stations across the country for over 105 million eligible voters to cast ballots.

There are more than 1,300 candidates vying for seats, including a record 314 women.

In the election, each voter casts two ballots, one to choose a candidate in a single-seat constituency and the other to select a party for proportional representation. Japan has 289 single-seat districts and 11 proportional representation blocs.

A party or coalition will need 233 seats to form a government with a simple majority.

In the previous setup, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had 256 seats out of 465 members of the lower house while its coalition partner the Komeito party had 32 seats in the recently dissolved parliament.

The LDP, which has ruled Japan for the most part since 1955, is likely to face a strong challenge this time from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ).

Polls suggest the CDPJ, which had 98 seats, could end up with as many as 140, which would put the LDP in a position where a coalition with Komeito is a necessity, not just an option.

The other major force in the previous parliament was the Japan Innovation Party with 44 seats, followed by the Japanese Communist Party with 10.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid