Supreme Court sets no deadline for reviewing impeachment requests

Brazil’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that there should be no deadline for the House Speaker to review impeachment requests against the president.

There are currently 144 impeachment requests against President Jair Bolsonaro sitting on House Speaker Arthur Lira’s desk — but Mr. Lira chooses to ignore them. Seven requests have been shelved due to technical errors, while the rest remain “under review”, with no deadline by which they must be considered.

The justices understand there is no legal basis for imposing a deadline and interfering in the legislative process. Voting took place virtually between May 13 and May 20.

“The alleged delay in the assessment and forwarding of the complaint presented cannot be claimed as a right of its authors, however numerous the number of subscribers and undeniable the civic weight,” said justice Cármen Lúcia.

Mr. Bolsonaro has been the subject of more than twice as many impeachment requests as any other president – including Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016.

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