President Dilma Rousseff met with her political advisors on Thursday as her government scrambled to win over undecided voters to block impeachment. (Reuters photo)
Nearly all members of Brazil's largest political party in the lower house of Congress will back the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in a critical vote for her political future on Sunday, a high-ranking party official said on Thursday.
Leonardo Picciani, the lower chamber leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, told reporters that 90 percent of the 68 members of his caucus would vote to impeach Rousseff on accusations of breaking budget laws, but there will be no punishment for those who do not follow the party line.
The PMDB was Rousseff's main coalition partner until it broke away two weeks ago, tipping the balance in favor of her removal from office.
Rousseff met with her political advisors on Thursday as her government scrambled to win over undecided voters to block impeachment, but defections by several centrist allies in her diminishing coalition have seriously compromised that effort.
Her attorney general also said he had called on the country's Supreme Court to annul impeachment proceedings.
Rousseff's opponents are just nine votes short of victory in the lower house, with 333 lawmakers backing impeachment, 124 opposed and 56 undecided or declining to respond, according to a survey by the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper.
© Thomson Reuters 2016