Japan Press Weekly

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2013 November 20 - 26 [POLITICS]

Top court finds voting disparities ‘unconstitutional’

The Supreme Court on November 20 judged that vote-value disparities in the December 2012 Lower House election of 2.43 to 1 in maximum are “in a state of unconstitutionality”, but did not nullify the election results.

This ruling was made on lawsuits that two lawyer groups had filed to 16 high courts and their branches around the country calling for the nullification of the national election. They argue that the vote-value imbalances were too large to justify election results.

Two high courts ruled the election is “unconstitutional and invalid”, while 12 judged “unconstitutional but valid” and two ruled “in a state of unconstitutionality”.

The Top Court, while acknowledging the geographical inequality in the weight of one vote, ruled the election last year is “in a state of unconstitutionality”, based on the recognition that the Diet made some efforts to correct the inequality. The court demanded further efforts be taken to narrow the gap in the disparities in the value of vote among constituencies.

On the same day, Japanese Communist Party Acting Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki held a news conference at the Diet building. Commenting on the court ruling, Yamashita said, “The court ruling severely criticizes the current single-seat election system’s defects which affect voting equality guaranteed by the Constitution.”

As it is impossible to correct the defect while maintaining the current system, the need now is to abandon one-member constituencies and establish a new election system with priority given to proportional representation constituencies, he added.

Past related article
> Courts rule vote-value disparities in latest general election unconstitutional [March 23, 2013