Brazil’s Temer rallies allies for Congress vote on graft trial

Bloomberg

Brazil President Michel Temer is rounding up allies for this week’s lower house vote on whether he’ll stand trial, marking a shift from a previous strategy to stall the congressional decision.
Temer wants to hold the session rather sooner than later to return attention on economic bills needed to kick-start a sluggish economy, according to interviews with half a dozen legislators and presidential aides. Until recently the government was inclined to delay the vote in case the prosecutor-general decided to file fresh charges before he leaves office in September.
With a solid majority in Congress, the question appears when rather than if the Temer administration will defeat the measure to put him on trial. The government expects between 270 and 280 allied legislators to be present on Wednesday. Lower house speaker Rodrigo Maia will only open the voting session if 342 of the lower house’s 513 deputies are present. The opposition needs the same number of votes to put Temer on trial.
While there’s a chance opposition deputies or even some allies won’t show up, the government still expects the vote to take place on Aug. 2 as scheduled. Officials have been discreet about their push to vote so it doesn’t like a defeat in case not enough legislators show up.
Temer is eager to end political uncertainty that flared after corruption allegations surfaced in May and focus on flagship proposals.