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Stripping the mandate of Eduardo Cunha, former president of the Chamber of Deputies, could lead to a period of instability for the government of Brazilian President Michel Temer, some local analysts said.
Cunha played an important role in the impeachment of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. He was overwhelmingly voted out of his parliament seat late Monday amid accusations that he lied about holding foreign bank accounts.
Last year, Swiss authorities uncovered a number of accounts in Cunha's name and informed the Brazilian authorities. Months before, Cunha had said in a congressional inquiry that he did not have any money abroad.
Cunha is also accused of taking millions of U.S. dollars in bribes to favor specific companies in public biddings of state-controlled oil giant Petrobras. He was mentioned in the testimonies of several accused in the Petrobras corruption scandal as one of the politicians who took the most bribes.
He was suspended from his post by the Supreme Court in May and Monday's vote to remove him from the legislature means he has lost immunity from prosecution and his arrest is seen as being highly likely.
Local analysts believe that Cunha's removal rids Temer of a dangerous and unpredictable ally, but his political influence will remain given his trove of information about other lawmakers in connection with the so-called Car Wash operation, the anti-corruption probe centering around Petrobras.
In June, Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki said there was concrete evidence that Cunha had received illicit funds.
The Eurasia Group, the world's largest political risk consultancy, said the possibility that Cunha could denounce others will make certain politicians nervous.
"The fear among party leaders is that Cunha could implicate ministers of the Temer government, including the president himself, in a desperate effort to reduce his sentence," Eurasia wrote in a report on Tuesday.
Another consultancy, LCA, wrote that Cunha could be motivated to take a plea deal, in order to save his wife and daughter, who are also accused of receiving illegal funds.
After Monday's vote, Cunha said he was innocent and would not denounce others. However, he said he would write a book revealing everything related to Rousseff's impeachment process.
"I will reveal, obviously, all that happened during the impeachment, conversations with all those who spoke with me about the impeachment. These will be public facts," he told the press.
The announcement was seen as a thinly veiled threat by centrist lawmakers whose parties have spearheaded the impeachment campaign against Rousseff.
In the coming days, it is expected that the Federal Police and Judge Sergio Moro who leads the Petrobras investigation will make a decision as to how they will proceed now that Cunha no longer has immunity.
Asked if he feared Moro, Cunha defiantly replied that he "only fears God."
(APD)
