Iolando Lourenço
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília – Yesterday five deputies announced that they were resigning from the Chamber of Deputies' Ethics Council (Conselho de Ética e Decoro Parlamentar da Câmara). They are: Júlio Delgado (PSB-MG), Chico Alencar (Psol-RJ), Orlando Fantazzini (Psol -SP), Cezar Schirmer (PMDB-RS) and Benedito de Lira (PP-AL). And then another nine deputies announced they were taking a leave of absence from the council. All this to protest votes on the chamber floor absolving deputies that the council has recommended for expulsion.

Deputy Delgado pointed out that the council is technical and makes profound investigations before issuing a recommendation. The mass exit of deputies from the council comes on the heels of a floor vote that absolved deputy Joao Paulo Cunha (PT-SP), after the Ethics Council recommended his expulsion by a vote of 9 to 5.

Translation: Allen Bennett