Coming on the heels of several court rulings that the December general election was unconstitutional, and even invalid, a ruling coalition-sponsored bill to rectify vote-value disparities was approved Friday by the Cabinet and sent to the Lower House.
Opposition parties are set to fight the bill during deliberations slated to begin next week. But the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its ally, New Komeito, aim to clear it through the House of Representatives by the end of the month by continuing negotiations with secretaries general from the opposition camp.
The legislation aims to cut one seat each from Fukui, Yamanashi, Tokushima, Kochi and Saga prefectures, and to redesignate 42 constituencies across 17 prefectures to reduce the maximum vote-value disparity to 1.998 from 2.524, based on 2010 census figures. It is based on a recommendation submitted March 28 by an independent panel at the Lower House in charge of examining the issue.