Osamitsu Nobe, who six weeks ago became the first municipal leader in Japan to be ousted under a court-ordered guilt-by-association provision, registered Friday to run in a Miyazaki Prefectural Assembly by-election.
The 59-year-old Nobe, former mayor of Kushima, will be running against two other candidates for the prefectural assembly seat in the July 28 election.
Following a Supreme Court ruling, Nobe was ousted as mayor June 6 and barred from running for that post for five years. He can, however, seek other elected offices.
"It's unfair that I've been accused in a case rigged against me," Nobe said after registering his candidacy.
He lost his post in the wake of a vote-buying case, which he claims was a rival's plot to ensnare him.
"I want to fulfill in the arena of prefectural politics promises that I couldn't fulfill as mayor," he said.
The election is being held to fill the seat vacated by Shigenori Suzuki, who is running in the Kushima mayoral election to replace Nobe.
Political pundits in the area say Nobe may benefit in the assembly race because voters opposing him are likely to split their votes among his two rivals.
Nobe lost the mayor's job after an official in his support group was convicted of violating the Public Offices Election Law in the November 2000 mayoral election and prosecutors filed a suit seeking to apply the law's guilt-by-association provision to Nobe.
The Supreme Court upheld Nobe's court-ordered dismissal last month.
Nobe served a four-year term beginning in 1987 as a Miyazaki Prefectural Assembly member is running against Masaru Tanaka, 48, a former president of the Kushima Municipal Assembly, and Takehiko Iwashita, 56, a former head of education in the city.