March 26, 2013

The Hiroshima High Court ruled on March 25 that the vote-value disparity in single-seat constituencies in last December’s general election is unconstitutional and the election results are invalid.

This is the first time Japan’s court judged national election results to be null and void. If this decision is finalized, an election for two nullified single-seat constituencies in Hiroshima Prefecture will be held again.

Taking into consideration the fact that the government’s council on Lower House electoral districts began to review the present single-seat apportionment on November 26 last year, the ruling stated that the decision will take effect one year later, from November 27 this year.

Presiding Judge Ikadatsu Junko referred to the fact that the disparity in the weight of votes among single-seat constituencies in December’s Lower House election has increased to 2.43 times from 2.3 times in the previous 2009 election. She said that the gap is just getting wider and “the extent of limiting voting rights cannot be disregarded any longer.”

This is the eighth ruling among 16 cases involving the constitutionality of the general election. All the rulings given so far have judged the election results to be unconstitutional, but all those judgments turned down the appeals for voiding them.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi said at a press conference on the same day, “It is significant that the ruling judged the election results not only unconstitutional but also invalid. The unconstitutionality will be pointed out repeatedly as long as the single-member constituency system is maintained. It is urgently needed to radically change the current election system to a proportional representation-centered system in order to represent public opinion.”

Ichida also criticized as “out of the question” the move of the ruling Liberal Democratic and other political parties to reduce the number of seats in the proportional representation districts in the Lower House.

Related past article:
> High court rules 2012 voter disparity unconstitutional [March 7, 2013]