A court in Japan has ruled that the disparity of up to 2.06 times in the value of one vote in the Lower House election last October does not violate the Constitution.

The Okayama branch of the Hiroshima High Court handed down the ruling on Thursday. It rejected the plaintiffs' demand for the results of the single-seat district polls to be nullified.

The ruling was the first in a series of lawsuits filed by a group of lawyers across the country.

The lawyers argued that the disparity of up to 2.06 to one between the least populated and most populated districts runs counter to the equality in the value of votes and violates the Constitution.

In Thursday's ruling, Presiding Judge Inoue Kazunari said the new demarcation system introduced last year assumes that the difference in the value of a vote could exceed 2.0 as a result of population mobility. He added that the system calls for the reallocation of seats every 10 years.

The judge said the disparity cannot be regarded as unconstitutional unless it remarkably expands.

He said the disparity exceeded 2.0 in 10 single-seat districts in the October election, but there apparently were no factors behind the rises other than population movements.

The demarcation system the government introduced last year led to the district changes for the Lower House that are said to be among the largest ever. But the gap in vote value still exceeded 2.0 in the October election.

After the ruling, the lawyer who represents the group held up a banner with the slogan "Galileo ruling."

Masunaga Hidetoshi said the high court ruling was unreasonable just like the ruling that found Galileo guilty for arguing that the Earth revolves around the sun. He said it's very regrettable.