Japan Wednesday objected to absentee voting boxes it said were set up on a set of disputed islets by officials from South Korea as the neighboring country held local elections.

The islets, called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, are currently under South Korea's control but Japan also claims them and objects to any moves aimed at solidifying South Korean sovereignty over the territory.

The ballot boxes were "unacceptable by any measure, from Japan's standpoint concerning the territorial rights," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso told a parliamentary committee.

It was not immediately known how many South Koreans, if any, used the islets' ballot boxes to cast votes, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity, citing ministry protocol.

The only inhabitants of the rocky outcroppings, in an area rich in fish and minerals, are 30 South Korean police stationed there, according to the government in Seoul.

After Tokyo learned that ballot boxes had been set up on the islets, Japan protested about them through its embassy in Seoul on May 23, the Foreign Ministry official said.

Japan and South Korea are scheduled to meet June 12-13 in Tokyo to discuss how to handle their dispute over the islands.

Opposition wins landslide victories

No national positions were at stake in Wednesday's local elections in South Korea, which included races for mayor in the capital, Seoul, and the second-largest city Busan.

South Korea's main opposition party won 11 of 16 key regional posts in the elections, according to exit polls, riding to landslide victories on nationwide sympathy for its leader wounded in a knife assault and widespread disenchantment with the government.

The ruling Uri Party won just a single race among the mayoral and gubernatorial posts up for grabs, according to exit polls by KBS television. The small Millennium Democratic Party won two races, and two campaigns were too close to call, KBS said.

Among the key positions won by the opposition Grand National Party were mayors of Seoul, and Busan, along with the governor of Gyeonggi province that surrounds Seoul, the exit polls showed. GNP members had previously held those three jobs.

The Uri Party's sole victory so far according to the exit polls was in North Jeolla province, a traditional stronghold of the Millennium Democratic Party, which severed its ties with Uri in 2003.
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(China Daily June 1, 2006)