In a move to calm factional feuds inside the leadership of the ruling Social Democratic Party, PSD, the party’s governing body has suspended three senior members, Sebastian Ghita, Dan Sova and Marian Vanghelie.

Each has been at the centre of a scandal in recent days, at a time when the party leader, Prime Minister Victor Ponta is running in Romania’s presidential election.

“We have taken this decision as all of them were involved in various disputes that might affect the party’s image and our presidential campaign,” PSD executive chairman Liviu Dragnea said on Wednesday.

“We wanted to send a clear message to all 500,000 PSD party members: our party is against internal disputes and the next PSD leader will be elected following fair and open elections,” Dragnea added.

Dan Sova, who was PSD vice-president, came under the spotlight after he was intercepted talking to another influential member of the PSD, Viorel Hrebenciuc, about his intention to become the next party leader if and when Ponta gets elected President of Romania.

Hrebenciuc allegedly promised to back Sova as the party leader if Ponta, is, as expected, elected President next month. In exchange, he asked Sova to initiate a law project for an amnesty for political leaders convicted for influence peddling.

Prosecutors already started a criminal investigation against Hrebenciuc and Sova for alleged influence peddling, a criminal offence carrying penalties of up to seven years in prison.

The leaked transcripts of the conversation, made public early this week, brought both of them trouble inside the party.

Sebastian Ghita, a member of PSD national executive committee, then publicly said that both Sova and Hrebenciuc should be suspended from PSD for plotting.

Finally, Marian Vanghelie, also a party vice-president, publicly criticized both Ghita and Ponta and expressed disappointment over the leadership.

Ghita, a rich businessman and media mogul, is one of Ponta’s main supporters. On Wednesday he announced his intention to run for the PSD leadership in a future internal election.

Analysts say the disputes inside the PSD are just the beginning of a fight between the various factions for control of the leadership.

“The race to become the Social Democrats’ next leader has already begun and the fight will be hard. Meanwhile, the recent scandals inside the PSD risk affecting the party’s credibility and, most important, could reduce Ponta’s chances of becoming President,” journalist Claudiu Pandariu said.

In a related development, anti-corruption prosecutors on Monday announced that they had begun an investigation into Hrebenciuc’s alleged involvement in a case related to the re-privatisation of forests seized under the Communist regime.

The case also involves Ilie Sarbu, a Senator and Prime Minister Ponta’s father-in-law. They are accused of helping to organize the illegal transfer of 43,000 hectares of forest to third parties in 2012.

Ponta has not been accused of involvement in any of the cases.

A survey last week said that Ponta was on course to win the presidential elections by taking around 40 per cent of the votes in the first round on November 2 – and winning an outright majority in the runoff.