6th Court Finds July Upper House Poll Constitutional

Hiroshima, Nov. 9 (Jiji Press)--Hiroshima High Court on Wednesday became the sixth court to find the House of Councillors election in July constitutional in terms of vote-value disparities.

The ruling was the 12th decision on a total of 16 lawsuits that have been filed with high courts and high court branches across the country by two groups of lawyers who claim that the election with the maximum vote-value gap of 3.03 times was unconstitutional.

The court in the western Japan city of Hiroshima rejected the plaintiffs' demand to nullify the results of the election for the upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

With Wednesday's ruling, one court has found the poll unconstitutional, five have said that the election was held in a state of unconstitutionality and six have ruled the poll to be constitutional.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Upper House polls in 2010 and 2013, whose maximum vote-value disparity stood at 5.00 times and 4.77 times, respectively, were held in a state of unconstitutionality.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]