Brazil in crisis as key vote on Rousseff looms
RIO DE JANEIRO• Brazil is gearing up for a fraught fortnight as the case for impeaching President Dilma Rousseff heads toward a crucial vote.
Congress members are preparing to sit at all hours to determine Rousseff ’s political fate over allegations of manipulating public accounts during her first term.
The impeachment process, which began in December, will pick up pace after the attorney general submits the president’s defence Monday.
The final vote to decide whether it passes to the Senate is expected to take place by April 17.
“We will not set the date; we will follow the sequence set out in the regulations,” said Eduardo Cunha, the president of the lower house of Congress. “You can’t start such a process and then stop. Whatever day it is, everyone will come.
“No one will be tainted with having dodged voting. The punishment for anyone missing will be political.”
For the impeachment petition to proceed, 342 members must vote in favour while the government needs the support of 171 members to block it.
A survey of congressmen by Estadao de Sao Paulo newspaper found that at least 261 were prepared to vote for impeachment while 113 were against.
Last week, Rousseff ’ s main coalition partner, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, ordered members who held ministerial positions to resign from their roles by April 16, though so far, only Henrique Alves, the tourism minister, has left his post.
The move was seen as increasing the chance of Rousseff ’s impeachment, but it has also caused divisions within the PMDB itself and mobilized government sympathizers.
Rousseff ’s Workers’ Party rallied its support base with demonstrations across the country over what it has called an attempted coup.