The Aug. 30 general election that brought the Democratic Party of Japan to power was "unconstitutional" because the disparity in the value of a vote reached as high as 2.30, the Osaka High Court declared Monday.
While rejecting a demand by an Osaka voter that the election returns in the Osaka No. 9 district be nullified, presiding Judge Kitaru Narita said, "The House of Representatives election, in which the disparity in vote value exceeded 2, is against the spirit of the Constitution."
It is the first judgment of unconstitutionality since the combination of single-seat districts and proportional representation voting was introduced for Lower House elections in 1996.
In the August race, a vote in the Kochi No. 3 district, which has the fewest eligible voters in the nation, was worth 2.30 times as much as a vote in the Chiba No. 4 district, which has the most registered voters, according to government data.