Japan Supreme Court Rules 2014 Election Process Unconstitutional

The Supreme Court of Japan ruled that the 2014 lower house election did not contradict the country's constitution.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — The Supreme Court of Japan has ruled that while elements of the 2014 lower house election were judged to have contradicted the country's constitution, it would not invalidate the vote results, Japanese media reported Wednesday.

The Court came to the conclusion following disparities in individual vote values dependent on population density variants in some Japanese districts.

According to the Kyodo news agency, during the December House of Representatives election, a vote in the least populous constituency was revealed to have a weight at a maximum of 2.13 times that of the vote in the country's most populous constituency.

To obtain a deputy mandate in a constituency located in a densely populated area a candidate would have to receive 2.13 times the votes required in a sparsely populated district. According to the courts, this violates citizens' equality, as provided by the constitution.

Following the 2014 election, the Liberal Democratic Party led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and its coalition partner, Komeito, won 326 of the 475 seats. The Democratic Party of Japan gained 73 seats, while the Communist Party received 21 seats.