Brazil Supreme Court denies president’s last attempt to avoid impeachment News
Brazil Supreme Court denies president’s last attempt to avoid impeachment

[JURIST] The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil [official website, in Portuguese] on Friday denied President Dilma Rousseff’s [BBC profile] injunction request to suspend an upcoming lower house vote regarding her looming impeachment. A lower house committee voted [JURIST report] earlier this week to recommend her impeachment, and a two-thirds majority vote will be required on Sunday to approve the action. Should the lower house approve impeachment, the Senate will vote [Reuters report] on whether to put Rousseff on trial for budget law violations. It is expected that she will stand trial for about six months and Vice President Michel Temer will replace her as soon as early May. While the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) [official website, in Portuguese] has suggested that they will vote for impeachment, Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT) [official website, in Portuguese] has expressed concern that such an action would throw the country into chaos. Rousseff’s impeachment would bring an end to the PT’s 13-year long control of the Brazilian government.

Last week the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court ordered [JURIST report] the legislature to commence impeachment proceedings against Vice President Michel Temer. In December the Supreme Court of Brazil ruled [JURIST report] on two measures to set the stage for impeachment proceedings against Rousseff: one requiring the re-formation of a congressional committee set up to guide Rousseff’s impeachment through Congress, and the other giving the Senate power to review a lower house vote for impeachment. Rousseff’s opposition claimed [JURIST report] that she doctored documents to hide the size of the national deficit in order to spend more government funds as her re-election neared. It is also believed she continued to forge documents in her second term and spent over USD $210 million without the legislature’s approval. Rousseff argued that the opposition is trying to impeach her to hinder government actions.

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