TOKYO (AP) — Ruling party leader Taro Aso was elected Japan’s next prime minister today in the lower house of parliament, ensuring that the outspoken conservative would take power later in the day.

Aso, who was chosen president of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday, had already begun piecing together a Cabinet expected to include a fellow outspoken hawk as finance chief.

The opposition-controlled upper house voted for Ichiro Ozawa, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, as prime minister. But the more powerful lower chamber was expected to override that ballot within hours in favor of Aso.

The right-leaning former foreign minister will confront a country wracked by political divisions and concerns over the economy, which has stalled in recent months amid the ballooning financial crisis in the United States.

“If you look at the current period, it’s not a stable one,” he told reporters. “These are turbulent times with the financial situation and everything else.”