Just five weeks ago another former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used almost exactly the same words, when he arrived in Islamabad on his way, as it turned out, to Riyadh.

BBC: NEWS | South Asia | On board Benazir Bhutto's flight

But the jaded voter was offered another chance to chip away at the LDP when, on Sept. 27, Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryutaro dissolved the House of Representatives and called a general election for Oct. 20.

CNN: Rise of a New Liberal Bloc