The vote was required when opponents, including unions and the Green Party, gathered enough signatures to force a plebiscite. They claimed that deregulation could lead to power shortages, that the current system was adequate, and that the proposed law was too complicated. The Federal Executive Council had voted 36-2 in favour of the law, while parliament had voted 159-25 in favour.
Energy department officials saw the proposed law, which took five years to formulate, as a compromise designed to please all economic segments. The law would have gradually opened the market to competition over a period of six years in three phases, beginning with the largest industrial consumers.
The next step is unclear. But if a new market law has to be formulated the process is likely to take at least three years.
