Tokyo ? Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi scored a political triumph Sunday as the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party headed for a landslide win in an election touted as a referendum on his push to privatize Japan’s cash-swollen postal system.

Early today, public broadcaster NHK projected the LDP won 296 seats in parliament’s 480-seat lawmaking lower house, far more than the 241 needed for a majority and the 249 seats it held when Koizumi dissolved the chamber Aug. 8. The most the party ever held was 300 of the body’s then 512 seats in 1986.

Combined with the allied New Komei Party, the LDP-led ruling coalition would have more than 320 seats – a two-thirds majority that would let it override votes by the upper house, the body that blocked postal restructuring last month.

Official results were delayed by a minor counting error in one prefecture but were expected to be announced later today, election authorities said. The hotly fought election saw voter turnout jump seven points to 67.5 percent from the 2003 ballot, according to a Kyodo News Agency estimate.

“I had hoped we would win a majority with our party alone, but we did even better than that,” a beaming Koizumi said late Sunday. “I thank the nation for its support and understanding.”

Though postal reform was likely to stay firmly at the top of Koizumi’s agenda, a landslide would strengthen his hand in pushing other changes, including overhauling the national pension system and trying to rid the LDP of pork-barrel politics and refocus it on policy.