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Brazil's supreme court to rule on validity of Rousseff's impeachment proceeding

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) Wednesday started to hear the validity of a law that regulates presidential impeachment proceeding, as well as various internal regulations of the Chamber of Deputies.

The hearing came two weeks after President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha launched an impeachment attempt against President Dilma Rousseff.

The request to hear the validity of Law 1.079/50 and internal regulations put in place by Cunha, has been put forward before the STF by the Communist Party of Brazil, an ally of Rousseff.

According to the complaint by the group, the law passed in 1950 is incompatible with the Constitution of 1988, which states that an impeachment process against a president must be started by the Senate.

After the request was brought before the STF on Dec. 9, Justice Edson Fachin ordered the suspension of all impeachment proceedings until the court rules on the validity of these regulations.

However, Fachin unexpectedly announced Wednesday that a secret ballot held by the Chamber of Deputies to name the committee overseeing impeachment proceedings was legitimate.

The Workers' Party had lambasted the secret ballot, saying it had allowed Cunha to load the committee with his allies. The entire STF must now vote to decide if the secret ballot is legitimacy.

Fachin also said that the Senate's role in reviewing an impeachment would be void if the lower house saw two-thirds of its members vote in favor of Rousseff's removal.

It is expected that the STF session starting Wednesday will end on Thursday, with the court defining the final rules to govern the impeachment process.

On the same day, in a speech to students, Rousseff said that "a battle has started, which will dictate the direction of our country."

Using fiery rhetoric, she said the opposition "is seeking to interrupt a mandate legitimately won at the polls...this can be called a coup."

The beleaguered head of state also slammed the accusations that she signed off on illicit financial operations, which are the basis for the impeachment case against her.

The opposition is using "inventions and fallacies" to bring her down, she said. Endi