Q24N (Prensa Latina) The plenary of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil is scheduled to resume today the debates on the admission of the request of impeachment against President Dilma Rousseff, accused of an alleged crime of responsibility.
At least 249 of the 513 legislators of the Chamber registered to speak in the sessiontoday, each of them with the right to three minutes, which would mean nearly 13 hours of discussion.
However, the Brazil Agency predicted that it may take longer, as at the end of each session (of four or five hours), the leaders of the 25 political parties represented in the Chamber also have the right to speak.
The voting on the admission of the impeachment request has been scheduled for tomorrow, and official sources hope the process could be checked by then.
In remarks made yesterday night and published by on-line Brazil 247 newspaper, the Chief of Staff, Jaques Wagner, said they have already the support from 200 legislators to check the impeachment, for which the votes of 172 legislators are needed.
According to Wagner, the increase in support stems mainly from the work of allied governors, one of whom, Flavio Dino (from the Communist Party) of Maranhao, comented that “the alleged avalanche towards supporting the impeachment was not verified.”
Yesterday, the vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, Waldir Maranhao (Progressive Party) announced that he would vote against the impeachment while Clarissa Garotinho (Party of the Republic), who favored the proceeding, asked for maternity leave and will not vote. The newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo acknowledged yesterday night on its on-line version that the opposition did not have the 342 votes needed for the request to go to the Senate, which would be in fact the one in charge of accepting or not to go on with the impeachment.
Also on Friday, Dilma Rousseff got support form the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis almagro, highlighted the political nature of the impeachment, its lack of legal certainty and said it sows distrust in OAS.
