The Government barely managed to push through the State Duma the law on reform of the housing and communal services sector

The Yabloko faction thinks that the government and factions supporting the government used inappropriate tactics to push through the State Duma the draft law on housing and communal services sector reform. " Pushing through the law the government and its vassal factions demonstrated cynicism, a lack of principles and violated the norms of the Duma Regulations, said Sergei Mitrokhin, deputy of the YABLOKO faction, in an nterview with journalists.

On Friday, March 21, 2003, the supporters of the government's variant of the reform acquired the number of votes required to adopt the draft law "On Amendments and Addenda to the Federal Law "On the Basis of the Federal Housing Policy" (law on housing and communal services sector reform) in the second reading only at the fourth attempt.

In the first vote the draft law only gained 217 votes (against a required minimum of 226 votes) and 221 votes during the second and the third votes. Deputies were re-registered twice after these votes. It was only after the fourth vote that the number of supporters of the draft exceeded by only two votes the minimum number of required votes, reaching 227 votes

For complete results see Voting in the State Duma For the adoption of the Federal Law "On Amendments andAddenda to the Federal Law "On the Basis of Federal Housing Policy" (law on housing and communal services sector reform). Second Reading.

According to Mitrokhin, the vote demonstrated that "the law is so absurd and unprofessional, and is so anti-social in nature that even the present pro-governmental State Duma managed to adopt it only with the help of huge efforts and violations of Duma Regulations."

Mitrokhin added: "It should be also noted that first of all members of the SPS (Union of Right-Wing Forces) faction could not resist pressure, as their five votes determined the final vote. It transpired that the SPS had only pretended not to support the pro-governmental draft."

Mitrokhin also said that "at some point in the discussion the communists left the "battle field" and only YABLOKO and some independent deputies insisted on their amendments." "If the communists had not marched out of the hall, some of the amendments, for example, the provision preserving benefits for the military with the lowest wages, could have been adopted and the result of the voting could have been different," added Mitrokhin.

He also told journalists that there were enough grounds to appeal to the Constitutional Court owing to the violations of State Duma Regulations committed during the preparation of the draft by the Committee for Industry, Construction and High Technologies when it developed the Table of Amendments. "There are ridiculous norms in the draft that have never been voted anywhere, and a number of amendments that appeared only at the second reading were falsified," stated Mitrokhin. "When preparing the draft law for the second reading we had to confront a lack of competence displayed not only by the Chairman and some members of the Committee, but also by members of the Government, and it was impossible to maintain a professional dialogue."

According to Mitrokhin, the protest action held by the YABLOKO party in Moscow and regions had a positive impact: "We noticed that some of the deputies who supported the draft in the first reading did not vote today."

"YABLOKO will do all it can to block the law in the third reading," stressed Mitrokhin.