Tokyo, Oct 21 (UNI) Japanese voters head to the polls on Sunday in a snap general election in which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition is forecast to win a landslide victory. A total of 1,180 candidates are running for the 465-member lower house of parliament. The election is being held a year ahead of schedule after Mr Abe last month dissolved the lower house and called for fresh polls to renew his mandate. Around 70 per cent of the single-seat constituencies are seeing a three-way battle between the Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition, its reformist-conservative rival led by Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike and a party opposing change Japan's war-renouncing constitution, according to Kyod news agency. Ms Koike, a former member of the (LDP), launched the Party of Hope last month, pledging to free politics from the "shackles" of vested interests. She is not running as a candidate herself. According to opinion polls, the country's stagnant economy and social security in an increasingly ageing society top voter concerns. Another dominant campaign issue is the country's pacifist constitution. The ruling LDP and the new Party of Hope are looking to revise the country's Article 9 charter, also known as the "peace clause" to clarify the legal status of the country's Self-Defence Forces. A two-thirds majority is needed in both houses of the Diet to to carry out the constitutional amendments before it can be put to a nation-wide referendum. UNI XC-SRJ SDR 1643