Japan sees 14th ruling finding 2017 poll constitutional

March 20, 2018

Hiroshima- Hiroshima High Court ruled Tuesday that the October 2017 House of Representatives election was constitutional in terms of vote-value disparities.

The court in the western Japan city of Hiroshima thus turned down a petition by a group of lawyers seeking to invalidate the results of the latest Lower House poll, in which the maximum vote-value gap stood at 1.98 times.

This is the 15th verdict among the 16 suits filed with high courts and high court branches, including those launched by a different lawyer group, to nullify the election, and the 14th that found the election constitutional. Only Nagoya High Court ruled that the election was held "in a state of unconstitutionality."

Handing down the latest ruling, judge Koji Ikuno said the fact that the vote-value disparity did not surpass 2.0 times in any constituency shows that the election was held under reasonable conditions in terms of the equality of the value of votes.

In the one remaining suit, filed with Hiroshima High Court, a different judge is scheduled hand down a ruling on March 30. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a unified judgement by the end of this year. Jiji Press