The Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, rejected a law on elections to the lower house, the State Duma, for the third time Wednesday, adding a new chapter to the bill's legislative marathon.


Only 76 deputies in the upper chamber, or 14 fewer than required, voted for the bill while 26 voted against, a vote that leaves the country without an election law only weeks before the summer parliamentary recess.


But in a bizarre development, the chamber then voted to declare the earlier result null and void and to reconsider the bill at its Thursday session, Interfax reported.


If the Federation Council again rejects the bill Thursday, the Duma must try to muster a two-thirds majority or 300 votes to override the council and send the bill straight to President Boris Yeltsin for his signature.


Council speaker Vladimir Shumeiko, a close Yeltsin ally, warned his colleagues they might be condemning the December elections to postponement, Itar-Tass reported. "If they happen on time the whole world will see that we respect the constitution," he said.


The law, which sets out the ground rules for the polls for the first time, has been batted back and forth between the Duma, the council and the president like a shuttlecock. The Duma has passed it six times, it has now been rejected by the council three times and Yeltsin has vetoed it once.


The latest Duma vote last Friday came after the working commission representing all three sides had apparently struck a compromise deal. In hearings on the law in the council Thursday, Yeltsin's political aide said the new version was "acceptable" to the president, suggesting strongly that he would sign it if it was passed by the upper house.


But many deputies still objected Wednesday to the provision in the latest draft that preserves the current structure of the Duma. In the new version, half of the 450 seats are to be allocated to national party lists and half to deputies elected in local constituencies. But the bill allows each party to put only 12 deputies from the center on its list, while all the others must come from the regions.


Several Federation Council deputies favor a system in which all seats are elected locally, something which would give regional barons, many of whom sit in the council, more influence over the elections.