Brazil prepares to vote on removing second president in a year

LONDON - 1 August 2017: The lower house of Brazil’s congress will vote Wednesday on corruption charges against the president, Michel Temer, the Guardian reported.

If two thirds of its deputies approve the charges – and Brazil’s supreme court agrees – Temer will be suspended for up to 180 days and put on trial.

The latest twist in Brazil’s political nightmare will mark the second time in a year that lawmakers vote on whether to remove a president.

But if more than a third of lawmakers vote to reject the charges – which political insiders regard as increasingly likely – Temer’s troubled administration could survive until presidential elections in 2018. And the persistent pall of corruption that hangs over Brazil’s political leaders will linger on.

Temer, who took over from the Workers’ party president Dilma Rousseff after her impeachment, is accused of corruption after a close aide was given $150,000 in cash – part of $12m in bribes prosecutors allege he and the aide were due to receive after intervening in a business deal.