Temer gathers enough votes to avoid being charged with leading scheme that sold favours, votes and plum appointments to big business

Brazilian president Michel Temer survived a key vote Wednesday night on whether he should be tried on corruption charges, mustering support in the lower house of Congress despite abysmal approval ratings.

To avoid being suspended and put on trial for charges of obstruction of justice and leading a criminal organisation, the president needed the support of at least a third of the 513 deputies in the Chamber of Deputies.

He reached the threshold of 171 about two hours into the voting. The final tally was 251 in support of Temer and 233 against. The rest were abstentions and absences.

Temer survived a similar vote in August on a separate bribery charge.

“This accusation is fragile, inept and worse than the first one,” legislator Celso Russomanno said while voting in favor of Temer.

The opposition, which spent much of the day manoeuvring to postpone the vote, criticised Temer. “I vote with more than 90% of Brazilians who have already convicted Temer’s corrupted administration,” said lawmaker Luiza Erundina.

While it was a clear win for Temer, the president has become so weakened by repeated scandals that it remains to be seen whether he can muster support for key reforms. Temer took over last year after Dilma Rousseff was impeached and removed from office. His term goes until 31 December 2018.

Many feel the administration lacks legitimacy because of how Temer came to power. Temer’s approval rating is about 3%, according to recent polls.

The 77-year-old spent recent weeks shoring up his support, doling out local projects, plum positions and favourable decrees. In the end, he didn’t get as much support as he did in August, when 263 voted in his favour and 227 opposed.

In both votes, the number of supporters came well below the 308 votes, or three-fifths of the chamber, he would need to pass major reforms such as a proposed overhaul of the pension system.

We are going to be stuck with a lame duck president for one more year. Alessandro Molon, congressman

Congressman Alessandro Molon, who voted against Temer, summed up the predictions of many political observers after the vote. “We are going to be stuck with a lame duck president for one more year,” Molon said. “He is not getting what he wants from this Congress because of the elections. And we are not going to get an agenda that is good for Brazilians, who reject Temer.”

For several hours on Wednesday, many opposition lawmakers refused to enter the chamber, hoping to deny the necessary quorum and delay the vote into the night, when presumably more Brazilians were watching television. Many stations carried the vote live, forcing deputies to decide whether to publicly support a deeply unpopular leader with elections looming next year. All 513 seats will be up for grabs.

Earlier in the day, Temer was hospitalised briefly for a urinary obstruction, but emerged smiling and flashing two thumbs up.

The charges against him stem from a mammoth corruption investigation that began as an investigation into money laundering and ended up uncovering systemic graft. Dozens of politicians and businessmen have been jailed as a result.

Prosecutors allege Brazil’s government was run like a cartel for years, with political parties selling favours, votes and plum appointments to powerful businessmen. They say Temer took over the scheme when he took power last year, after his predecessor was impeached and removed from office, and that his party has since received about $190m in bribes.

Temer denied the charges and contends the prosecutor who brought them had a grudge against him. In an address to lawmakers on Wednesday, Temer’s lawyer, Eduardo Carnelos, said the latest indictment contained no proof and was so confusing that it “assaults the Portuguese language, it assaults logic”.

Matthew M Taylor, a professor at the school of international service at American University and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Temer’s durability was due in part because so many fellow politicians stand accused of wrongdoing. “As you look at Congress and you recognise that somewhere between a third and a half of Congress is implicated in scandal, there aren’t many other people who have a national profile who could govern at this point,” Taylor said.