Rousseff offers vote if restored to power

Suspended President Dilma Rousseff made a last-ditch effort on Tuesday to avoid impeachment, telling Brazilian lawmakers she would let voters decide if they want an early presidential election if she is restored to power.

Rousseff had been publicly mulling the idea of a plebiscite for weeks as the Senate moves closer to an impeachment vote on charges her administration violated fiscal rules to hide a gaping budget deficit. The vote is scheduled for Aug 25, four days after the end of the Summer Olympics being held in Rio de Janeiro.

She made the proposal official in a long letter "to the federal senate and Brazilian people" in which she mixed expressions of regret for failing to listen to her compatriots with stern admonishments for critics she accused of plotting to carry out a "coup."