A woman steps on a poster showing Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, left, and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with the phrase in Portuguese "They knew everything. Impeachment Now" as protesters... (Associated Press) 
 
 A woman steps on a poster showing Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, left, and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with the phrase in Portuguese "They knew everything. Impeachment Now" as protesters call for Rousseff's impeachment in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, April 14, 2016. The lower house... (Associated Press) 
 
 BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The lower chamber of Brazil's Congress has begun debate on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, with the crucial vote slated for Sunday. 
 
 The atmosphere in the lower Chamber of Deputies was electric at the start of Friday's session. 
 
 Lawmakers backing impeachment allege Rousseff's administration violated fiscal rules. They say the government used sleight of hand accounting in a bid to shore up public support. However, many of those pushing for impeachment face grave accusations of corruption themselves. 
 
 Rousseff's defenders insist she did nothing illegal, and sat similar accounting techniques were used by previous presidents. 
 
 If 342 of the lower house's 513 legislators vote in favor of impeachment, the process moves to the Senate. ||||| BRASILIA (Reuters) - Pro-impeachment lawmakers chanted “Dilma Out” in the lower house of Brazil’s Congress on Friday, as it opened a raucous three-day debate on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff on charges of breaking budget laws. 
 
 Pro-government demonstrators took to the streets in several states amid fears of violence as the debate began. Major trade unions and landless peasant movements planned bigger, nationwide protests on Sunday, when the debate is set to culminate with a vote that Rousseff is widely expected to lose. 
 
 The government lost a last-ditch appeal on Thursday before the Supreme Court to halt the impeachment process, which could bring further instability or even chaos to Latin America’s largest economy after 13 years of rule by the leftist Workers’ Party. 
 
 Rousseff is accused of manipulating budget accounts in 2014 to secure her re-election. 
 
 She has strongly rejected the accusation and planned to appeal to Brazilians in a televised speech on Friday night. But the increasingly isolated leader canceled the broadcast after an opposition party sought a court injunction to block it, arguing that she was unfairly using resources of the Brazilian state to defend herself. 
 
 Rousseff is fighting to survive a political storm fueled by Brazil’s worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s and a spiraling corruption scandal that has reached her inner circle. 
 
 In a further blow for the president, Minister for Cities Gilberto Kassab resigned his post late on Friday, according to two sources familiar with matter. His Brazil Social Democratic Party (PSD) split from the government on Wednesday and said it would vote for Rousseff’s impeachment. 
 
 Police stepped up security in the Brazilian capital where a half-mile-long (1 km) metal fence has been erected on the grass esplanade opposite Congress to avoid clashes between rival demonstrators expected to turn out by the tens of thousands over the weekend. 
 
 In Rio de Janeiro, police said they plan to form a cordon on the Copacabana beachfront avenue to separate the pro-impeachment crowd from Rousseff supporters. 
 
 “I am very worried that there will be violence, depending on the result of the vote and the number of people who gather in Brasilia,” said Congressman Rogerio Rosso, who chaired the lower house committee that backed Rousseff’s impeachment. 
 
 The country’s top network TV Globo plans to broadcast Sunday’s critical roll-call vote from beginning to end, starting at 2 p.m. (1700 GMT), which analysts said will add pressure on lawmakers to vote for impeachment. 
 
 Polls show that roughly two-thirds of Brazilians support impeachment. 
 
 Jurist Miguel Reale Junior speaks during a session to review the request for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment at the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, Brazil April 15, 2016. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino 
 
 “VIOLENT ACT” 
 
 As opposition congressmen called for Rousseff’s ouster, Attorney General José Eduardo Cardozo addressed Congress in her defense, calling the impeachment process a “violent act with no parallel against democracy.” 
 
 “History will never forgive those who broke with democracy,” Cardozo said, as ruling lawmakers shouted: “There won’t be a coup.” 
 
 While the budget violations alleged against Rousseff are serious, she has not been directly implicated in the kickback scandal engulfing state-run oil company Petrobras, though her opponents say that bribe money was used to fund her election campaigns. 
 
 Slideshow (15 Images) 
 
 The move to impeach her, after months of political deadlock, is widely seen as a vote of no-confidence in a leader blamed for turning once-booming Brazil into the worst performer among the world’s major economies. 
 
 Support for unseating Rousseff has gained momentum in recent weeks, with the defection of parties from her ruling coalition. 
 
 Nineteen of the 25 parties with seats in the lower house now back impeachment, the Brasilia-based consultancy Arko Advice said on Friday. They will deliver at least 350 votes and maybe 370, exceeding the two-thirds majority in the 513-seat house needed to send impeachment to the Senate, it said. 
 
 Former Justice Minister Miguel Reale Jr., a leading supporter of impeachment, opened Friday’s debate by saying the process to oust Rousseff reflected the will of the people. “She was extremely irresponsible and knocked out the country,” he said. 
 
 If her impeachment is approved by the lower house, the Senate must then vote on whether to go ahead with putting Rousseff on trial for disobeying budget laws. 
 
 If the Senate approved a trial, in a vote that would likely take place on May 11, Rousseff would automatically be suspended and replaced by Vice President Michel Temer. 
 
 Temer, who would serve out Rousseff’s term until 2018 if she is ousted by the Senate, has little popular support. He would face a daunting task restoring confidence in a country where dozens of political leaders, including his close associates, are under investigation for corruption. 
 
 Temer is considering the chairman of Goldman Sachs in Brazil, Paulo Leme, and the founder of asset manager Maua Capital, Luiz Fernando Figueiredo, as candidates to join his economic team should he take over the presidency in coming weeks, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. ||||| A majority of Brazil's Supreme Court have rejected a last-ditch attempt by President Dilma Rousseff to halt an impeachment process against her in advance of a vote in Congress. 
 
 Justices denied a request on Thursday for an injunction against proceedings that Brazil's attorney general - the government lawyer - called "Kafkaesque" and said amounted to denying Rousseff the opportunity to defend herself. 
 
 Brazil's lower house of Congress is due to vote on Sunday on sending Rousseff to trial in the Senate. 
 
 The move could push Brazil from political paralysis into a chaotic power vacuum by ending the 13-year rule of Rousseff’s Workers' Party. 
 
 Earlier on Thursday, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, the attorney general, asked the top court for an injunction to suspend Sunday's lower house vote until the full court can rule on what he called procedural flaws in the impeachment process. 
 
 Reporting from Brazil's capital Brasilia, Al Jazeera's Latin America Editor Lucia Newman said: "The top court decided in a split vote. Two judges agreed with the attorney general that the president had been denied due process. 
 
 "Now nothing can stop the impeachment vote from taking place." 
 
 The lower house began debating the charges against the president on Friday morning. 
 
 "The debate will go on for at least 48 hours. The voting will start on Sunday afternoon. That's prime time in Brazil," Newman said. 
 
 Rousseff, already struggling with Brazil's worst economic crisis in decades and a historic corruption scandal, has lost support within her governing coalition. 
 
 She faces the growing likelihood of defeat in the lower house vote, which would send her impeachment to the Senate for trial on charges of breaking budget laws. 
 
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 If the Senate accepts her impeachment, Rousseff would be suspended and replaced by Vice President Michel Temer as soon as early May pending a trial that could last six months. 
 
 "The country's most popular entertainment show has been cancelled in order to broadcast the proceedings," Al Jazeera's Newsman said. 
 
 "By Sunday night, we should know whether or not the lower house has agreed to recommend the impeachment to the Senate, which will ultimately be in charge of the impeachment." 
 
 Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla, had not been expected to resort to the Supreme Court until after Sunday's vote. Cardozo's request to the court was seen as a sign that her government now expects defeat. 
 
 Rousseff's opponents are just nine votes short of victory in the lower house, with 333 politicians backing impeachment, 124 opposed and 56 undecided or declining to respond, according to a survey by the Estado de S Paulo newspaper. 
 
 Several of the top court justices recently said that they did not think the court should interfere with the legislature's jurisdiction in the impeachment battle. 
 
 Brazil's largest political party, Rousseff's main coalition partner until it broke away two weeks ago, said most of its members in the lower house would back deposing her. 
 
 Leonardo Picciani, the lower chamber leader for the party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, said 90 percent of the 68 members of his caucus would vote for impeachment.
– The lower chamber of Brazil's Congress has begun debate on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, with the crucial vote slated for Sunday, the AP reports. The government had carried out an unsuccessful bid before the country's Supreme Court to try to halt the process, but that appeal was lost, Reuters notes. The atmosphere in the lower Chamber of Deputies was electric at the start of Friday's session, with some congressmen chanting "Dilma Out!" before proceedings began. Lawmakers backing impeachment allege Rousseff's administration violated fiscal rules. They say the government used sleight-of-hand accounting in a bid to shore up public support. However, many of those pushing for impeachment face grave accusations of corruption themselves. Rousseff's defenders insist she did nothing illegal and say similar accounting techniques were used by previous presidents. The country's attorney general called the whole procedure "Kafka-esque" and said it meant Rousseff wouldn't be able to fully defend herself, Al Jazeera reports. If 342 of the lower house's 513 legislators vote in favor of impeachment, the process moves to the Senate, which would decide whether to open a trial. If the Senate moves to impeach Rousseff, she would be swapped out with Brazil's vice president, Michel Temer, as soon as May since she would be suspended from office for up to 180 days during the trial.