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News > Latin America

UPDATE: Brazil Congress Begins Impeachment Voting Process

  • Dilma Rousseff is battling to stay in power as an impeachment vote against her looms.

    Dilma Rousseff is battling to stay in power as an impeachment vote against her looms. | Photo: AFP

Published 17 April 2016
Opinion

Protests are expected throughout the country as the largest nation in Latin America could fall victim to what critics are calling a soft coup attempt against the president.

Brazil's lower house of Congress is currently holding a critical vote on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff over charges of manipulating government accounts for political gains.

Deputies will vote one by one in a televised session which is expected to last several hours.

Related: Lula: 'The Brazilian Elite Do Not Like Democracy'

A total of 342 of the 513 lawmakers need to approve Rousseff's impeachment in order for the process to proceed to the Senate. Currently 333 lawmakers back impeachment, with 124 opposed and 56 undecided or declining to respond, according to a survey by the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper. 

Meanwhile on Saturday Whadi Damous, an influential lawmaker from the ruling Workers Party (PT), told reporters that the government had secured several last minute votes from undecided politicians opposing the impeachment efforts. Pro-government supporters were also out on the streets last night rallying to show their support for the country's embattled president.

Related: 5 Things You Really Need to Know About the Plot to Oust Brazil's President Rousseff  

If lawmakers vote for impeachment, the proceedings move to the Senate, where Rousseff will immediately be suspended for up to six months while the Senate decides her fate.

The Senate trial would be overseen by the chief justice of the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Ricardo Lewandowski, and two-thirds of the 81 senators must vote for conviction to remove Rousseff from office.

In this scenario, Vice President Michel Temer - who comes from the same PMDB party as lower house speaker Eduardo Cuhna, the man who helped push the call for impeachment - will take office as acting president.

Meanwhile, hours before the vote several opposition lawmakers met in order discuss strategies that would grant amnesty to Eduardo Cunha, on the grounds that he has played an indespensible role in the impeachment process against President Rousseff. 

"Eduardo Cunha played a key role in approving the impeachment motion against the president. He deserves to be pardoned,” Osmar Serraglio of the PMDB argued. 

Leading up to Sunday's vote, President Rousseff issued a statement on social media where she strongly denied that she had committed an impeachable crime and called the bid to oust her "the biggest legal and political fraud" in the country's history.

WATCH: In 60 Seconds: Impeachment Debate Begins in Brazilian Congress

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