Brazil Supreme Court rejects Rousseff government bid to delay accounts ruling

The Federal Accounts Court, known as the TCU, will meet later on Wednesday and is expected to reject the accounts because budget results were allegedly manipulated.

A few of her opponents are waiting to pounce on the ruling as a pretext to impeach the president for violating Brazil’s budget law, although it is not clear how much support they will have inside Congress. Earlier the same day, the Supreme Court rejected a request from the government to delay the TCU’s decision.

Further muddying the waters, her nemesis, Cunha, is himself fighting allegations that he took a $5 million bribe in the Petrobras scheme and is hiding money in Swiss bank accounts (Other OTC: UBGXF – news).

Her government failed to gather enough lawmakers to have a quorum for the session despite a cabinet reshuffle last week that was meant to bolster her position in the legislature.

“It’s as if the government has ceased to exist”, said congressman Pauderney Avelino of the opposition Democrats party.

Rousseff’s ability to fend off calls for her ouster has deteriorated amid the deepest recession in more than two decades, dwindling popularity and fallout from a wave of corruption probes into a few of her political allies. Rousseff shook up her cabinet amid the biggest political and economic crisis besetting Latin America’s largest economy.

Though the investigation could lead to the invalidation of Rousseff’s victory last year, the judicial case could also last for months – or even years – and she can appeal to the Supreme Court.

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The electoral court announced late Tuesday that it would determine whether Rousseff and Vice President Michel Temer, who were in office during the re-election campaign, had abused their power. Witness testimony has alleged funds skimmed from overpriced contracts signed between the oil firm and Brazil’s top construction companies were syphoned, in part, to ruling coalition parties, including Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT) and the president’s 2014 re-election campaign. On Wednesday he said he had no intention of resigning.