Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the country’s Congress, will examine a public petition seeking to impeach Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Following weeks of parliamentary maneuvering and suspense, Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eduardo Cunha on Wednesday announced that he has accepted the petition and will allow it to be considered by a congressional committee. As Speaker, Cunha had the authority to either move the petition forward or shelve it. The petition was originally presented to Cunha by a group of São Paulo legal scholars who allege that President Rousseff has abused her budgetary powers, especially by systematically denying mandatory Treasury transfers to state-run banks. Impeachment has drawn considerable public support in recent months because of a spreading corruption scandal involving state-run energy company Petrobras. Meanwhile, a deteriorating economy has undermined consumer and business confidence, with the President’s popularity sinking to single digits.
Link to government news agency release.
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