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Brazil Supreme Court Freezes Impeachment Efforts Against Dilma Rousseff

  • Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff smiles to photographers at her office in the Planalto Palece in Brasilia, Brazil, Oct. 13, 2015.

    Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff smiles to photographers at her office in the Planalto Palece in Brasilia, Brazil, Oct. 13, 2015. | Photo: Reuters

Published 13 October 2015
Opinion

Government supporters accuse the opposition of trying to oust President Dilma Rousseff through a parliamentary coup.

Brazil's Supreme Court issued an injunction Tuesday, freezing efforts by opposition parties and the embattled head of the lower house of Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.

The speaker of the lower house Eduardo Cunha insisted that he would continue to review impeachment requests despite the injunction.

"The decision on impeachment requests is a constitutional prerogative I have and it is not being questioned. I continue to have this prerogative and I will use it," said Cunha who himself is under investigation by Brazilian authorities for money laundering.

At issue is the constitutionality of the impeachment process. As speaker of the lower house, Cunha has stated that he has the power to decide the steps and introduced a document several months ago to this affect. Pro-government law makers believe that any process should follow Brazilian law number 1.079 / 1950, which outlines the legal means to address allegations of wrongdoing by state officials.

The Supreme Court agreed with a petition submitted by a lawmaker from Rousseff's Workers Party that current efforts by Cunha to single-handedly proceed with impeachment should be frozen as it could violate the constitution.

The Workers’ Party and grassroots political movements have argued that efforts to impeach President Rousseff constitute a “coup” against the president, who was reelected in 2014 with over 51 percent support.

"The coup-plotters are motivated. But democracy is not a game of soccer and the people's vote cannot be neglected just because the losers are not satisfied with the outcome of the (2014 election)," said Rui Falcao, president of the Workers’ Party.

The ruling by the Supreme Court grants Rousseff a bit of a reprieve and gives her some extra time to line up support in Congress.

Before the court ruling, opposition parties had planned to force a vote in the lower house that could have opened proceedings to impeach the president as early as this week.

Opposition lawmakers signaled that they intended to file an amended request to begin impeachment proceedings.

Cunha has shelved four impeachment requests received by Congress and has to decide on eight others. They include one prompted by the Federal Audit Court, known as the TCU, that alleges her government doctored accounts to allow for more spending in the run-up to her re-election last year.

However the court’s decision is merely an opinion. Their ruling is now being sent to Brazil’s Congressional Joint Budget Commission and then to the floor of the Congress, to establish, in the coming months, whether or not President Rousseff violated the law..

ANALYSIS: Understanding the Latest Efforts at Ousting Rousseff

​The president's aides fear Cunha could try to speed up the impeachment process because he is under pressure to resign as speaker following the discovery of Swiss bank accounts in connection with corruption charges against him. Cunha denies any wrongdoing.

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