If the Senate finds her guilty with another two-thirds vote, she would be forced from office.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by President Dilma Rousseff to halt the impeachment process, clearing the way for a key vote in Congress.
Judges refused a request for an injunction against proceedings that the government lawyer called “Kafkaesque” and said amounted to denying Rousseff the opportunity to defend herself against claims of illegally fudging government budget numbers to boost her re-election chances in 2014.
The 7-3 ruling in a Supreme Court session that began late Thursday and went well past midnight in the capital Brasilia paved the way for Sunday’s vote by the lower house of Congress, which is due to decide whether to send Rousseff to an impeachment trial.
In an atmosphere of maximum drama and tension in Latin America’s largest country and economy, debate in the lower house began later Friday leading up to the vote on Sunday.
Latest counts of voting intentions in the lower house by major Brazilian newspapers show the pro-impeachment camp either at, or on the verge of, the necessary two-thirds majority.
If the vote passes, the Senate will have authority to open a trial against Rousseff. If the Senate finds her guilty with another two-thirds vote, she would be forced from office.
The 68-year-old leader’s grip on power is fast slipping, leaving Brazil in crisis at a time of recession and less than four months before hosting the Olympics.
Rousseff has desperately been trying to assemble enough support in the lower house.
GO DOWN FIGHTING
On Thursday, she launched a new line of defense, sending her government’s top lawyer, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, to file for the injunction. The government alleged procedural failings in the impeachment case, saying it had violated her right to a defense.
“Evidence unrelated to the case has been included in the process, such as matters related to President Dilma (Rousseff)’s previous term,” Cardozo said in the filing.
He called the impeachment drive “a truly Kafkaesque process in which the accused is unable to know precisely what she is accused of or why.”
Rousseff, who has vowed to go down fighting, also tried another tack by repeating an offer to forge a political compromise with opponents if deputies throw out impeachment on Sunday.
“The government will fight until the last minute of the second half… to foil this coup attempt,” she said in an interview published by various media outlets Thursday.
Rousseff on Thursday held a meeting with ministers and some of the lawmakers still loyal to her, a presidential source said, shortly before Cardozo announced his appeal.
Several of the parties in Rousseff’s coalition have jumped ship, starting with the PMDB of her vice president, Michel Temer. Scores of lawmakers have since turned against Rousseff, saying they will vote for impeachment.
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