Brazil: Impeachment floor vote results at lower house expected on Sunday evening
Brasília - Eduardo Cunha, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies
The voting on the impeachment case against President Dilma Rousseff at the Chamber of Deputies that will decide if the proceedings will go to the Senate for trial is expected to finish at about 9pm next Sunday (17). At a news conference on Tuesday (Apr. 12), the house speaker, Eduardo Cunha, said he estimates the voting will take about four hours.
Access into the Chamber of Deputies will be restricted, but viewing screens will be set up outside, according to the speaker. “The galleries [which are usually open for of the public to watch the sessions] will be reserved for the press only, we are not expecting any attendance other than the press. [Access to] the chamber and surrounding area should be as restrict as possible,” said Cunha.
The debates leading toward the vote begin on Friday (15), with the impeachment petitioners and Rousseff's defense each given 25 minutes to argue their case. After that, the 25 parties with seats in the house and the majority and the minority leaders will each be allowed an hour on the floor for debates.
According to these calculations, the initial discussion that begins on Friday should take at least 28 hours, which means it could continue into 1pm on Saturday (16).
Then, on Saturday, all leaders will be allowed floor time in proportion to their number of seats in the house. After that, each of the deputies who wish to make points on the floor will be allowed three minutes to speak. If all 513 choose to speak, this will take about almost 26 hours, which could carry this process over to the first few afternoon hours on Sunday.
The voting session is set to open at 2pm on Sunday with the party leaders' addresses. The vote is slated to begin at 3pm. During the vote, the leaders will not be allowed to raise points of order or take the floor to speak.
The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, has promised to announce the order in which each of the deputies will be called in Sunday's roll call vote this Wednesday (13). of the governing coalition have accused the speaker of pulling the strings of the voting process as an attempt to secure a pro-impeachment vote.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Brazil: Impeachment floor vote results at lower house expected on Sunday evening
