SAPPORO — Muneo Suzuki, leader of Hokkaido's New Party Daichi, said elections for both chambers of the Diet could be held simultaneously next year if the opposition camp secures a huge win in the Aug. 30 House of Representatives poll.

Suzuki, a former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, is seeking re-election to the Diet in the upcoming poll and his party is fielding three other candidates. He was convicted of bribery in 2004, lost his first appeal and has another one before the Supreme Court. If that fails, so would any chance of being in the Diet.

Suzuki left the LDP under a cloud in 2002 and lost his seat when the lower chamber was dissolved in 2003.