The outline of a special bill to allow COVID-19 patients recuperating at home or in designated accommodations to vote by mail-in ballot was agreed upon Thursday by several parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party and Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
The parties are hoping to enact the bill in the current Diet session, scheduled to end on June 16, and apply it to the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election slated for July 4.
The agreement was reached at a meeting of the LDP and its ruling coalition partner, Komeito, as well as opposition parties the CDPJ, the Japanese Communist Party, the Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), the Democratic Party for the People, as well as a House of Councillors caucus, Your Party.
The five parties, excluding the JCP, which reserved its stance, will jointly submit the bill to the House of Representatives as early as June 3.
In the bill, those eligible for voting by mail will be COVID-19 patients recuperating at home or designated accommodations, as well as eligible voters under quarantine at such accommodations or similar places upon returning from abroad.
People deemed to have been in close contact with infected people will be exempt from the special measure.
The CDPJ and DPP demanded the inclusion of such people. However, the LDP argued that the number of those who have been close contact with COVID-19 patients is so large that it is difficult for public health centers and other institutions to keep track of the latest situation. Therefore, the parties agreed to leave the issue for the future.
Even under the current Public Offices Election Law, people hospitalized and recuperating in accommodations can vote by having local election administration commissions set up voting stations for early voting or absentee voting, but it has been difficult for those recuperating at home to vote.
As of May 19, about 33,000 people are recuperating at home and about 10,000 COVID-19 patients are staying at accommodations nationwide, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
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