39 pct of Brazil’s PMDB deputies say Rousseff will not be impeached -poll

BRASILIA  (Reuters) – Nearly 40 percent of lawmakers from Brazil’s most powerful party that recently broke with President Dilma Rousseff’s ruling coalition do not think she will be impeached, a survey released yesterday showed.

The finding by consulting firm Arko Advice showed a turnaround within the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, which just over a week ago appeared extremely confident that Rousseff would be pushed from office and that her vice president, Michel Temer, a PMDB member, would take her place.

Asked if they thought Rousseff would be forced from office, 52 percent of the PMDB respondents said yes, 39 percent said no and 9 percent said they did not have a defined opinion yet.

Sixty-six percent of the respondents said most PMDB members supported impeachment.

Brasilia-based Arko interviewed 44 of the PMDB’s 67 lower house deputies in the April 5-7 survey conducted at the request of Reuters.