Single-member Districts without Voting in Prefectural Election

Abstract

　We focus on districts without voting in prefectural election, and argue why district without voting occur using the data of single-member districts in prefectural election, which the largest number of district without a vote and the only number of candidate is lower than 2 that Duverger's law and M+1 rule indicates. Calculating the ratio of the districts without voting by prefectural election since 2000, it is appeared that the only election that the ratio of the districts without voting decreased is the election in 2007, which there are many redistricting and changes of the seat of districts because of "Heisei no daigappei (municipal mergers)." Therefore, we evaluate two research questions, 1) redistricting causes the number of candidates to increase and the number of districts without voting to decrease, 2) the change of the seat of district cause the number of candidates to increase and the number of districts without voting to decrease, using the data of single-member districts in prefectural election. Moreover, we argue whether the number of candidate in next election after redistricting and change of the seat of district is 2, Duverger's law indicates, or 1 (without voting).