Vote-counting began in Miyagi and Shiga prefectures Sunday evening after by-elections were held to fill two vacant spots in the 480-seat House of Representatives.

The by-elections are the first national-level contests to be held since the Upper House election in July, when the Liberal Democratic Party rolled to victory on the back of its popular new leader, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Early results for the races in the Miyagi No. 4 constituency and the Shiga No. 2 constituency were expected to be known later in the evening.

If the LDP takes both seats, it would gain a simple majority in the powerful Lower House.

In Miyagi, four candidates were vying for the seat left vacant by the Sept. 4 death of Soichiro Ito, a former Lower House speaker and member of the Liberal Democratic Party.

In Shiga, three candidates ran for the seat vacated by the LDP's Akira Konishi, who died on July 23.

The Miyagi candidates were: Shintaro Ito, a university professor who is the 48-year-old son of the late Ito, running on the LDP ticket; former Miyagi Gov. Shuntaro Homma, a 61-year-old independent; Takashi Yamajo, 38, of the Democratic Party of Japan; and Toshiro Ono, 52, of the Japanese Communist Party.

Homma was elected as Miyagi governor in 1989 but resigned in 1993 after being arrested on suspicion of bribery.

In March 1997, the Tokyo District Court sentenced Homma to two years and six months in prison for taking 120 million yen in bribes from a construction firm and a paper manufacturing firm. Homma has already served the sentence.

The Shiga aspirants, meanwhile, are Konishi's brother and secretary, Osamu Konishi, 43, of the LDP, Issei Tajima, 39, of the DPJ, and Etsuko Narumiya, 56, of the JCP.