E. German Coalition Delays Unity Decision : Politics: Group avoids collapse by turning unification schedule over to a joint East-West committee.

East Germany’s ruling coalition avoided collapse Sunday by putting off a highly sensitive decision on the timing of unification with West Germany.

After often heated debate at an unusual Sunday sitting of the East German Parliament, the Liberal Party’s parliamentary leader, Rainer Ortleb, announced agreement to hand the decision over to a joint committee from East and West German parliaments scheduled to meet next month.

The dispute does not place in doubt that the two Germanys will enter a political union about the time of the planned all-German election in early December. But exactly when this union occurs has become an issue so divisive that it has threated to split the coalition that has governed East Germany since March.

The issue is complex, but because it turns on election politics, it is one every member of the 400-seat Volkskammer understands.

In a move that would effectively block smaller East German political parties from winning seats in an all-German election, the Liberals and Social Democrats--both junior members of the Christian Democrat-led coalition--have joined forces to press for East Germany’s legal accession to West Germany to take place on Dec. 1, the day before the all-German elections.

Such a move would mean that contests in all constituencies would be governed by West German election laws.

“If we want to elect a real all-German Parliament and take it seriously, then we must, as far as possible, make the conditions for such an election the same for all candidates and voters,” argued the Social Democrats’ parliamentary leader, Richard Schroeder, during Sunday’s debate.

However, behind this lofty aim is the reality that such timing would effectively exclude minor East German parties, including those who helped mount last autumn’s popular revolution, by subjecting them to the West German requirement that a party must poll at least 5% of the popular vote to be entitled to any seats.

Because of the makeup of these parties, their exclusion under West German rules would probably help the Social Democrats and the Liberals most in an election.

Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere’s Christian Democrats, plus the smaller East German parties, want the election fought under the separate laws of East and West Germany, with East Germany proclaiming its union with West Germany immediately after the polls close Dec. 2.

Under legal mechanics already agreed upon, unity will occur under Article 23 of the West German constitution, which stipulates that “other parts of Germany” may accede if they so desire.

De Maiziere, who claims his position is based mainly on the fairness of letting as many East German parties as possible win seats in an all-German Parliament, knows that the smaller party representation would likely reduce the parliamentary strength of the country’s second-biggest party and his main political opponents, the Social Democrats.

The East German Parliament also voted Sunday to re-establish five states abolished by the Communists in 1952 in a move to consolidate central state power.

Elections for governments in those states--Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia--were scheduled for Oct. 14.