Brazil's bar association calls for Temer's resignation

Brazil's Order of Attorneys is adding its voice to the growing number of calls for President Michel Temer's impeachment. The bar association voted overwhelmingly late Saturday to lodge an impeachment request with Congress, adding to at least eight already filed.

The association was also influential in the impeachment of Rousseff last year.

Earlier this week, a newspaper claimed to have an audio recording of Temer offering to pay hush money, to stop a potential witness from testifying against him. Temer says the tape's been doctored.

TRT World's Sarah Jones reports.

The embattled president did win a reprieve on Sunday when a key coalition partner delayed a decision on whether to abandon him over an explosive corruption scandal.

The key ally to Temer's center-right PMDB party, the PSDB social democrats, had been set to decide whether to withdraw — potentially dealing the government of Latin America's biggest country a death blow.

However, less than five hours before the session was scheduled to start, a spokesman for the party said it had been cancelled.

Street protests called by leftist groups around the country also appeared to have had only a modest impact, further easing the sense of intense crisis for the center-right president.

Demonstrations by leftist groups in the capital Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other cities fizzled. Trade unions had called for nationwide protests to demand that Temer step down, but crowds numbered only in their hundreds at each main city.

A parallel set of protests called by more rightwing groups was abruptly cancelled.