Survey Shows 60% of Brazil’s Congress Would Vote to Impeach

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – More than sixty percent of all representatives at the Chamber of Deputies say that they are in favor of the impeachment of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, according to a survey by Datafolha. This percentage would represent 308 of the 342 votes needed for the Chamber of Deputies to approve the impeachment.

The survey also shows that 108 representatives, or 21 percent of the Lower House, are against the impeachment of President Rousseff. To halt the impeachment process from going to the Senate, the government needs 172 votes.

Both government supporters and critics are now after the eighteen percent of representatives who are indecisive. These, say analysts, are the ones who will decide Rousseff’s future in the Lower House.

Datafolha also interviewed Brazilian senators, and found that 55 percent would vote for the impeachment of the President, while 24 percent defend that Rousseff stay on until the end of her second term, in 2018.

President Rousseff’s support in Congress declined considerably after her biggest ally, the PMDB party, left the government coalition at the end of March.

The Chamber of Deputies’ 65-member special commission created to discuss the request of impeachment of Brazil’s leader is scheduled to start deliberating on Friday whether or not to accept a report which calls for the approval of impeachment proceedings.

Since the deadline for the vote by the commission is at 5PM on Monday, April 11th, and more than one hundred representatives signed up to address the issue in front of the commission, the deliberation is expected to extend throughout the weekend.

If the commission accepts the request the vote will go to the Chamber floor for a vote, possibly by the end of next week. President Rousseff is charged with breaking the fiscal responsibility law by the mismanagement of funds and authorizing loans from state-owned financial institutions to manipulate the government’s deficit in 2015.