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2013 November 27 - December 3 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Court: July Upper House election invalid due to vote-value disparity

The Hiroshima High Court on November 28 ruled that the results of the July Upper House election in Okayama were invalid because a vote-value disparity in that constituency was unconstitutionally excessive.

A lawyers’ group, in 14 high courts and branches, has been calling on the courts to rule on the invalidity of election results in all 47 prefectural constituencies.

This is the first court decision and also the first to invalidate an outcome of House of Councilors elections in terms of discrepancies in vote weights.

In the July election, differences in vote values reached a level of 4 (reaching a maximum disparity of 4.77) to 1 in six constituencies and 3 to 1 in eleven constituencies which included Okayama. The court ruled that all these cases presented states of “extreme inequalities”.

The judge concluded that disproportionate vote weights have been left untouched in violation of the Constitution despite the Grand Bench of the Supreme Court in 2009 pointing to the necessity of revisions in the election system itself.

Asked for comments by the press on this high court decision, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo said, “The present system which is on a prefecture-by-prefecture basis cannot secure voting equality, the court decided. We must take its decision seriously.”

“It is imperative to drastically revise the present system to one centering on proportional representation seats,” Shii added.