The Sendai High Court's Akita branch ruled Wednesday that the vote-value disparity in a local constituency in the December general election was unconstitutional but let the results stand.
The ruling, centering on the poll results for the Akita No. 1 constituency, was the last in 16 cases brought by two groups of lawyers over disparities in the weight of votes of up to 2.43 to 1 in the Dec. 16 Lower House election, which returned the Liberal Democratic Party to power after three-plus years and led to LDP leader Shinzo Abe being installed as prime minister.
The Akita branch rejected the plaintiffs' demand to nullify the election results for the No. 1 constituency. Two other high courts have ruled in recent days, however, that the results be nullified in the constituencies contested in their respective suits.