Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan, has been a vocal proponent of revising Article 96, stating that "It's unfair that just more than one-third of lawmakers could block revisions even if 50 percent or more of the public want to amend the Constitution". Given that his Liberal Democratic Party controls both Houses of the National Diet (for the first time in nearly a decade), political pundits say that he has a fair chance to succeed. However, the Liberal Democratic Party's coalition partner, New Komeito, may be unwilling to support such a change, and in fact, the Liberal Democratic Party appeared to drop the issue from its platform in the run up to the House of Councillors election in 2013. Moreover, the Japanese population appears to be roughly divided regarding the revision of Article 96, with 42% in favor and 46% against according to a recent Mainichi Shimbun poll. A separate NHK survey showed that nearly 50% of Japanese had no opinion on the subject.