By Andrew Hay and Natuza Nery
Brasilia, Brazil - Lawyers have filed two impeachment requests against Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, claiming he is responsible for alleged corruption that has thrown his government into crisis, the country's Congress said on Thursday.
The lower house of Congress will decide whether there are legal grounds to consider an impeachment process or whether to shelve the requests, as was the case with four previous ones filed against Lula since he took office in January 2003, the chamber's secretary said in a statement.
Lower house President Severino Cavalcanti is responsible for the final decision on such requests. He said earlier this week he saw no grounds for Lula's impeachment.
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"Within a few days, I will have a position," Cavalcanti told reporters on Thursday. "I will do nothing hasty."
Allegations that Lula's ruling Workers' Party bribed lawmakers to support government legislation have brought on Brazil's worst political crisis since President Fernando Collor faced impeachment in 1992 and subsequently resigned.
Collor suffered an impeachment process only after he lost political support, faced evidence of money laundering and embezzlement and thousands of Brazilians took to the streets to call for his ouster.
Political analysts see no such factors in Lula's case.
His popularity has dipped after he won office on promises to clean up government graft but he remains the solid favourite to win in Brazil's 2006 presidential election.
Lawmakers and Brazil's press have yet to provide evidence linking Lula to corruption allegations and Brazil's first working-class president says he is the victim of a media and political elite that wants to stop his re-election. Lula has denied knowledge of any wrongdoing.
Also on Thursday, the lawmaker who unleashed the scandal in June, lower house deputy Roberto Jefferson, shielded Lula from the accusations, saying the president was unaware of graft by his ministers and they had "betrayed" him.
The impeachment requests came from little-known lawyers Gildson Gomes dos Santos and Aylton Ferraz Freitas.
"While there is no conclusive proof against Lula in all these scandals there is no chance of an impeachment process against him," said political analyst Ricardo Ribeiro at MCM Consultores in Sao Paulo.
Under Brazilian law, Cavalcanti would have to decide if Lula was criminally responsible for wrongdoing for the impeachment request to move ahead. Should he take such a decision, the request would go to a lower house commission where Lula could defend himself.
The commission's findings would be voted on by the lower house of Congress, which would need to approve an impeachment process by a two-thirds majority for it to begin.
Once approved by the lower house, the process would be set up in the Senate, at which time the president would have to temporarily resign from his duties.
Congress shelved all 22 impeachment requests filed against former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso during his eight years in office.
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