BRAZIL PRESIDENT SUSPENDED, VICE PRESIDENT TAKES OVER AS INTERIM LEADER

Despite not serving up to half of her elected mandate as the President of Brazil, the Brazilian Senate after an over 20-hour debate voted 55 to 22 to suspend the President of Brazil for 6 months during the pendency of her trial by the Senate for allegedly manipulating government accounts, and possible impeachment.

Dilma Rousseff was elected not after the 5^th October, 2014 election saw no presidential candidate secure the needed 50% of the votes cast in the first round, but after a subsequent runoff election on 26 October between her and Aecio Neves which she won by a slim margin of 51.6% to 48.4% under the platform of the National Working Party, and as Brazil’s first female president.

Her political career started in the 1970s when she partook in the uprising against Brazil’s former military dictator, and has been in power since the return of democracy to Brazil in the 1980s. She acted as Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Chief of Staff between 2003 and 2011. As a consummate economist, she believes that the government has a role to play in fostering development. Ironically, this appears to be her greatest undoing. Despite the Brazilian political landscape saddled with scandals – from the Petrobras scandal to high ranking senators entering a plea bargain arrangement to act as key witnesses in in corrupt charges – Rousseff has managed to remain clean of any of the allegations. However, so many critics deride her management of the economy which was reported to be bullish prior to her taking over power. She is also accused of breaking the budgetary laws by borrowing from state banks to cover shortfalls in the budget. This allegation began in December by the then-speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, who launched the campaign to have the President impeached, amidst waging recessional trends.

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Her suspension has since Thursday seen her former Vice President, Michel Temer, take over the interim leadership of Brazil pending the outcome of the impeachment process. Rousseff however still retains her official residence and her title as the President of Brazil, but will cease to continue the functions of the Office pending outcome of the process.

Rousseff has however reacted to the suspension by referring to it as a “coup”

“When an elected president is suspended because of a crime she hasn't committed, the name we give is not impeachment but a coup. I may have made mistakes but I did not commit any crime. The coup d’etat threatens to undo true victories of [the] last decade."

She has further vowed to take all legal steps to ensure that the “injustice” is upturned.

"I have fought my entire life for democracy, I have had many victories… The struggle for democracy has no date and no deadline."

She added that

“I have made mistakes, but I have not committed any crimes. I am being judged unjustly, because I followed the law to the letter

The international community has approached this scenario with caution, although in a bivalent manner. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon added his opinion by advocating for “calm and dialogue” while stating that he “trusts that the country’s authorities will honour Brazil’s democratic process”. The United States has a similar disposition, and “intend to respect the government institutions and traditions and procedures”.

However, Ecuador and Union of South American Nations, appear to be on the other offensive. The Secretary General of the Union has warned that there may be a risk of “rupture of democratic continuity”, while Ecuador regard the suspension as a “threat of a grave alteration of the constitutional order”.

The stock market appear to have rejuvenated since the suspension of the President, with stock values rising by more than 1%.