Rio de Janeiro Assembly Votes (69 – 1) to Begin Witzel Impeachment Proceedings

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With the support of 69 of the 70 deputies, the President of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ), André Ceciliano (PT), on Wednesday, June 10th, formalized the start of the impeachment proceedings against Governor Wilson Witzel.

In fact, the decision to begin proceedings is within the powers of the head of the unicameral state legislature. But by referring the motion to the full legislative assembly, he sends a powerful message to the Guanabara Palace.

“I could monocratically accept one of these motions, but I want to decide in a plenary session, bearing in mind that this is not a pre-trial,” Ceciliano said, when opening the voting session.

Not even those who have already closed ranks with former judge Witzel were willing to block the proceedings that could bury their political claims.

Márcio Pacheco, who until May 29th was the government leader in the assembly, voted to establish a special committee to examine the complaint’s appropriateness.

Rodrigo Amorim, who since the beginning of the legislative session has been acting as Witzel’s informal leader, and Alexandre Knoploch, who worked with Márcio Pacheco on behalf of the government, also voted in favor.

Rosenverg Reis was the only one who did not vote. Marcos Abrahão failed to answer the first call but voted through the WhatsApp group.

In all, 14 motions for impeachment have been filed with ALERJ. The most recent, filed yesterday, is from Deputy Renan Ferreirinha (PSB); he included the results of his inspections of the field hospitals and the TCE (State Court of Auditors) criticism of the 2019 accounts.

Impeachment Procedure

The parties will have 48 hours to appoint their representatives to the impeachment committee, which will have another two days to elect its chairman and rapporteur. The governor shall be notified to submit his defense in up to ten sessions.

At the end of this period, the committee shall prepare its opinion, which is read and voted on by the full chamber.

If the deputies accept the complaint (by the vote of more than two-thirds of the total membership), Witzel would be removed from office and a court having representatives from ALERJ and the State Court of Appeals would be established to judge him.

Source: Extra