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A group of high-profile lawyers filed a request on Wednesday to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, bringing closer a decision on her political survival as months of uncertainty have paralyzed Congress, rattled financial markets and deepened an economic slump.

QuickTake Brazil’s Highs and Lows

Lower house President Eduardo Cunha, a vocal critic of Rousseff who himself faces corruption allegations, pledged no bias in deciding whether to accept the plea that alleges she manipulated budget accounts in 2014 and this year. Accepting the petition could take days or weeks and would trigger a protracted legal process that could eventually force the president from office.

For the second time in Brazil’s 30-year-old democracy, the country is embroiled in a presidential impeachment frenzy that has exacerbated economic woes. The latest request will test the resolve of Cunha and the opposition to try to oust the least popular president in Brazil’s modern history. While the outcome of the impeachment effort is far from clear, economists and investors agree: The political stalemate needs to be resolved -- and quickly.

Without stability in the capital, they say, Latin America’s biggest country will struggle to shore up its soaring budget deficit, win back investors and rebound from what’s projected to be the longest recession since the Great Depression. Brazilian markets fell, with the real trading 1.2 percent to 3.9545 per dollar as the benchmark Ibovespa stock index dropped 0.4 percent to 46,912.34.

Fast Resolution

“A fast resolution would be good, one way or the other, but then it really depends what type of political reality emerges at the end of the process,” said Alberto Ramos, chief Latin America economist for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “Nobody can claim to know what’s going to happen next. We just know which questions to ask, but we don’t know the answers.”

Rousseff has maintained throughout the spreading scandal that she hasn’t done anything wrong and declined to comment for this article.

“Government action will not be impeded by the opposition,” she told journalists in Helsinki on Tuesday. “No matter how many impeachment requests they make.”

While at least two dozen impeachment requests already have been filed, this one is different because of who is submitting it: lawyer Helio Bicudo, a prominent former member of Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, and former Justice Minister Miguel Reale Junior. The nation’s largest opposition party supports the petition. A previous request by Bicudo and Reale had focused only on alleged budget tinkering through last year, leaving legal uncertainty over whether a sitting president could be held liable for acts during a previous term.

"The mark of corruption continues in the Dilma government," said Carlos Sampaio, lower house leader of the PSDB, the largest opposition party. "Cunha has everything to accept impeachment."

Cunha did not give a deadline to decide but said he would have "news" by November, according to Jose Mendonca Filho, head of the Democrats party in the lower house.

Bicudo and Reale argue that Rousseff doctored accounts to hide the severity of a budget deficit. The country’s audit court has already rejected her 2014 financial practices.

Impeachment Process

Impeaching a president in Brazil requires several steps: The lower house must accept the petition, examine it and put it to a vote. Two thirds of the lawmakers must back the charges for the petition to go to the Senate, which will make the final decision.

If Rousseff is removed from office or resigns, Vice President Michel Temer would take over and finish her term, which ends in 2018.

“To wait for the impeachment to complete itself -- six to eight months -- you’re going to put Brazil through the wringer even worse than it already is,” said David Fleischer, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Brasilia. “What needs to happen is to quickly restore private-sector confidence in government.”

The last time Brazil faced a similar crisis was in 1992, when President Fernando Collor de Mello resigned amid an impeachment process and was banned from elected office for eight years. He was accused of accepting bribes.

The current imbroglio began two years ago when federal police investigators tracked a Land Rover bought by a notorious money launderer to a top executive at Petroleo Brasileiro SA. They uncovered a multibillion-dollar kickback scheme that has since crippled the oil producer, driven some of its suppliers into bankruptcy and ensnared top politicians, including Cunha himself. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Cusp of Junk

As the scandal spread, markets collapsed. The nation’s currency, the real, has plunged 32 percent this year. Fitch Ratings on Thursday cut the nation to the cusp of junk, the fourth downgrade under Rousseff’s watch.

Meanwhile, the economy is shrinking. Gross domestic product is forecast to contract 3 percent this year and 1.22 percent in 2016, according to economists in a central bank survey released Monday. It expanded only 0.2 percent last year.

The weak data reflect a startling turnaround for a nation that was once the place to be for foreign investors. But the end of the commodities boom exposed a system that critics say was in need of structural reforms all along.

Impeachment likewise would reveal just how politically mature Brazil has become, according to Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas in Washington.

“If this ends up as a cleansing process and people see this was done according to all the right standards and to international best practices, it could be very good for Brazil,” Farnsworth said.

— With assistance by Randy Woods, and Raymond Colitt