Malacañang on Monday congratulated the victory of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party, which swept to a resounding victory in a snap election Sunday and immediately vowed to “deal firmly” with threats from North Korea that dominated the campaign. “We wish to congratulate His Excellency Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the results of the elections this weekend,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement. We have many points of collaboration with our neighbor in the North, which include economic, socio-political security and defense cooperation,” he added. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) benefited from a weak and splintered opposition, with the two main parties facing him created only a matter of weeks ago. The new center-left Constitutional Democratic Party meanwhile, fared slightly better than expected but still trailed far behind Abe with a projected 50 seats.

Source: The Standard October 23, 2017 16:07 UTC