Constitutional Court will validate seats of new MPs Tuesday

The Constitutional Court on March 16 will validate the seats of the MPs who will replace the eight ministers of the Liberal-Democratic coalition who decided to vacate their legislative seats, Info-Prim Neo reports. The vacated seats were distributed by the Central Election Commission to the substitute candidates of the PLDM, PL, PDM and AMN last weekend. In the Liberal-Democratic faction, Prime Minister Vlad Filat, Deputy Prime Minister Iurie Leanca and Minister of Health Vladimir Hotineanu will be replaced by engineer Ivan Ionas, the president of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Moldova Ghenadie Ciobanu, and businessman Nicolae Olaru. The ministers of the Democratic Party – Valentina Buliga, Valeriu Lazar and Marcel Raducan – will be substituted by political analyst Oazu Nantoi, the head of the Union of Oenologists of Moldova Gheorghe Arpentin, and doctor Valentin Stratan. Minister of Education Leonid Bujor, of the Moldova Noastra Alliance, will be replaced by sports manager and former MP Valentin Cheptini. Teacher Ion Apostol will take the place of the head of Moldova's Water Agency Ion Lupu. Minister of Justice Alexandru Tanase and Minister of Transport Anatol Salaru have not yet vacated the seats in the Parliament. Under the law on the status of MP, the two can hold the post of minister and of legislator in parallel by April this year.