The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the vote-value disparity between densely and sparsely populated districts in the 2021 Lower House election — 2.08 times — was constitutional.
The top court decision followed 16 conflicting rulings from lower courts, with plaintiffs demanding that the outcome of the House of Representatives election held on Oct. 31, 2021, be nullified.
Among the 15 justices of the top court's Grand Bench, 14 ruled the 2021 Lower House election was constitutional, while one said it was unconstitutional.
Two groups of lawyers had filed the 16 lawsuits. Out of them, nine rulings said the gap was constitutional, while seven others said the election was held "in a state of unconstitutionality." None of them favored the plaintiffs' demand of nullifying the election result.
The top court's ruling comes after parliament last November enacted a law bringing about the country's largest-ever change to the boundaries and distribution of Lower House single-seat constituencies, to correct the vote-value disparity.
The law was aimed at narrowing the vote disparity below the twofold level.
The Supreme Court had ruled the Lower House elections of 2009, 2012 and 2014 where the vote disparity was above twofold were problematic, saying they were in a state of unconstitutionality.