Brazil's Supreme Court Suspends Impeachment Moves Against President

Lawmakers who support President Dilma Rousseff hold up pictures of the leader when she was a political prisoner, which read in Portuguese: “Dilma stay.”

Ending a day of high political drama in Brazil, the supreme court bought President Dilma Rousseff a little time on Tuesday night to reverse a potentially devastating vote on the impeachment committee that will decide her fate.
In a secret ballot earlier in the day, the lower house of Brazil’s congress appointed a committee stacked with opponents of the embattled Workers party leader, who will be tasked with investigating whether to launch impeachment proceedings.
Scuffles broke out on the floor of the legislature as supporters of the president attempted to physically block the ballot, smashing an electronic voting unit and unplugging others.



The government lost the vote by 272 against 199, but a few hours later Justice Luiz Edson Fachin of the supreme court suspended the creation of the committee until a judgement is issued on the legality of the secret vote.

Ruling on the challenge filed by the Communist party, the judge said committee members must be selected by party leaders and elected in an open vote. The injunction will remain in place until next week.

The committee will have the task of reporting on whether Rousseff committed an impeachable offense. Opponents who filed the impeachment motion that set the process in train accuse her of breaking budget rules to boost spending during her re-election campaign last year. Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing.

If the committee finds an offence was committed, the process will go to a full vote on the house floor, in which the opposition needs two-thirds of the votes to begin a 180-day impeachment trial in the senate.

During that trial, the president would be suspended and replaced by her vice-president, Michel Temer.

Her supporters in congress plan to appeal to the supreme court against the secret voting procedure adopted by speaker Eduardo Cunha, who allowed the alternative list to be presented.