  Analyzing the effective conformal field theory for the parafermionic Hall
states, corresponding to filling fractions nu_k=2+k/(kM+2), k=2,3,..., M odd,
we show that the even k plateaux are expected to be more stable than their odd
k neighbors. The reason is that the parafermion chiral algebra can be locally
extended for k even. This reconciles the theoretical implication, that the
bigger the k the less stable the fluid, with the experimental fact that, for
M=1, the k=2 and k=4 plateaux are already observed at electron temperature
T_e~8 mK, while the Hall resistance for k=3 is not precisely quantized at that
temperature in the sample of Pan et al. Using a heuristic gap ansatz we
estimate the activation energy gap for nu_3=13/5 to be approximately 0.015 K,
which implies that the quantization of the Hall conductance could be observed
for temperature below 1 mK in the same sample. We also find an appealing exact
relation between the fractional electric charge and fractional statistics of
the quasiholes. Finally, we argue that besides the Moore-Read phase for the
nu_2=5/2 state there is another relevant phase, in which the fundamental
quasiholes obey abelian statistics and carry half-integer electric charge.
