United Moldova Party creates faction

The United Moldova Party will set up a special faction that will consist of unaffiliated MPs. This became possible after the MPs adopted amendments to the Parliament's regulations in two readings. Until now, the parliamentary groups could be set up only during the first ten days of the constitution of the new legislative body, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vladimir Turcan, the leader of the five MPs representing the United Moldova Party, said they will soon choose a name for the faction. There are two more unaffiliated lawmakers who represent the European Action Movement - Veaceslav Untila and Iurie Colesnic. Vladimir Turcan said they did not yet consider the possibility of Untila and Colesnic joining the new faction. Initially, Vladimir Turcan insisted on setting up a group similar to the five that exist in the Parliament, arguing that the unaffiliated MPs are discriminated as they cannot field candidates for important state positions, do not form part of the standing commissions and cannot submit proposals for modifying the agenda of the sittings. The members of the government coalitions opposed the creation of new factions. A compromise solution was to set up an apolitical group of independent and unaffiliated MPs. The group of unaffiliated MPs of the United Moldova Party comprises the five lawmakers who defected from the Communists Party at the end of 2009. These are: Vladimir Turcan, Victor Stepaniuc, Ludmila Belcencova, Svetlana Rusu and Valentin Guznac.