The legislative body adopted the bill whereby the post of First Deputy Head of Parliament was excluded. The Communist lawmakers voted in favor of the bill together with the Liberal-Democratic MPs, who drafted the legislative initiative. The bill was passed by 73 votes for. 15 MPs voted against. The Liberal lawmakers were absent from the assembly hall when the issue was put to the vote, Info-Prim Neo reports. The authors of the bill said the post of First Deputy Speaker is not stipulated by the Constitution and, if the position is kept, all the sittings of Parliament chaired by the First Deputy Speaker may be declared unconstitutional. After the amendments were adopted, Vlad Plahotniuc automatically became Deputy Speaker. The PLDM also suggested changing the method of dismissing the Deputy Heads of Parliament, but later abandoned their suggestion. The post of First Deputy Head of Parliament was instituted in 2009 and was held by Vladimir Turcan, Serafim Urecheanu, and then Vlad Plahotniuc.