Shinzo Abe assassination: Japanese head to polls in grief and disbelief

Prime minister Fumio Kishida warns violence will not be tolerated in defiant speech after the murder of former leader

Many Japanese voters will go to the polls on Sunday with a heavy heart, but also with a sense of quiet defiance, as they cast their ballots just two days after Shinzo Abe, the country's most influential politician of modern times, was shot dead while making a campaign speech.

As the country struggled to come to terms with the first assassination of a current or former leader for almost 90 years, officials in the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), which Abe dominated for a decade, insisted his death would not derail the democratic process.