January 27, 2013
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2013 January 23 - 29 [POLITICS]
Single-seat constituency system & party subsidies provoke public criticism |
The result of the December 16 Lower House election, in which the Liberal Democratic Party scored a “landslide victory”, has clearly brought to light the negative effects of the single-seat constituency system and government subsidies for political parties. Public opinion is increasingly demanding that those systems be revised.
It was reported on January 17 that political parties other than the Japanese Communist Party applied for this year’s subsidies totaling about 32 billion yen.
An estimate issued by Jiji Press shows that the ruling LDP is to receive 14.55 billion yen this year, about a half of the total sum. The amount to be granted to the LDP increases by 43.3% from the previous year though the number of votes the party obtained in the latest general election decreased by 2.2 million compared to the last general election in 2009.
The Japan Restoration Party headed by Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru applied for the subsidies while arguing for a 30% cut in the grants. The People’s Life Party, which was formed after the general election by almost all the lawmakers of the Tomorrow Party, also requested the subsidy.
At the end of last year, four small parties such as the Sunrise Party whose tenure of life lasted just five days accepted the subsidies amounting to 155.23 million yen, while submitting notices of their dissolution to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Political commentator Asakawa Hirotada told Akahata about the harmful influences of the election system and the public funding system. His comments follow:
In the general election, the LDP got more than 60% of all the seats in the Lower House though the absolute proportion of votes the party received was 24% in the single-member constituencies, and 15% in the proportional representation districts. The gap between the election result and public will has become wider than ever before.
As seen in the case of the People’s Life Party, which seeks to “take over” the grants for its forerunner Tomorrow Party, party subsidies have turned into a kind of “rights and special interests”.
The very role of political parties is now being called into question. In this regard, I have a high opinion of the JCP which has consistently criticized the single-seat constituency system as well as refused to accept public subsidies.
Related past article
> Party subsidies spoil political parties [January 18, 2013]
> Drastically change election system to reflect voters’ will [December 19, 2012]
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