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Brazilian parliament prepares for impeachment hearings after Rousseff turns to Supreme Court

Xinhua, December 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Brazilian parliamentary leaders on Thursday urged all political parties sitting in the national legislature to state the names of lawmakers who will join a special commission to look into the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.

This was announced after President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha opened impeachment proceedings on Wednesday.

On Dec. 7, the special commission will convene an extraordinary session to appoint a president and secretary. Its 65 members will have to be comprised by all parties, based on their number of seats in parliament.

The ruling bloc, led by the Workers' Party, will have 36 seats, while the opposition parties, led by the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, will have 17 seats. And the rest 12 seats will be split among smaller parties.

Once the commission is formally established, Rousseff will have a span of 10 legislative sessions to mount her defense. After hearing the defense, the commission will have a span of five legislative sessions to bring the matter to a final vote. To impeach the president, 342 out of 512 yes vote are needed.

While the parliament is gearing up for the impeachment hearings, Rousseff's supporters in the Workers' Party moved to dismiss the entire impeachment process on Thursday by lodging a motion to Brazil's supreme court (STF), saying that Cunha was politically motivated to push for Rousseff's impeachment.

According to deputy Wadih Damous, author of the petition to the STF, Cunha is using the impeachment to change the focus of public opinion as the Workers' Party is seeking an ethics hearing against him on corruption charges.

Damous said Cunha had abused power and attempted to gain illicit personal benefits from his official position.

Lawmakers from the Brazilian Communist Party joined the Workers' Party in filing the motion at the STF, Damous added.

Later on Thursday, Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula also lambasted the impeachment decision. At a press conference, he declared himself "indignant at what is being done" in parliament.

Rousseff "is making immeasurable efforts...to put the economy back on track and many representatives want to contribute with this effort," he said, noting that it seems Cunha has made the decision "not to care about Brazil." Endi