The Upper House has passed and sent to the Lower House a bill to revise the Public Offices Election Law in order to rectify disparities in the relative value of a vote in Upper House elections. The bill, submitted by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito, is likely to become law by the end of this month. An Upper House election is to be held next year in accordance with it.
The revision, however, comes too late and does too little. The bill incorporates only a temporary remedy, and a new rectification measure will be necessary sooner or later.
A January 2004 ruling by the Supreme Court on an Upper House election held in 2001 triggered the move to revise the law. In that election, the maximum disparity in the relative value of a vote reached 5.06. The proposed revision reduces the disparity to only 4.84. Disparity is measured by dividing the number of voters in a constituency by the number of Diet seats allocated to the constituency and then comparing the result from constituency to constituency.
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