Unaffiliated voters for the first time made up the largest group of Kyodo News pollees in a survey taken ahead of Sunday's general election.

In a telephone poll conducted Friday to Sunday, 33.6 percent of respondents said they were uncommitted, up 3.7 percentage points from Kyodo's survey prior to the October 1996 general election, according to results compiled Wednesday.

Uncommitted voters outnumbered supporters of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for the first time in any Kyodo poll. The LDP topped the list in eight past surveys.