Impeachment against Brazil’s Rousseff annulled, new vote called

Rio de Janeiro, May 10 (IANS) Attempts to impeach Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff were stalled as the acting speaker of lower house of the Congress annulled the impeachment process on Monday and called for a new vote.

The decision by Waldir Maranhao - who came into office last week - according to RT online, comes as the impeachment process was passed to the Senate for a vote, following last month’s decision in the lower house. The upper chamber was set to vote on Wednesday.

Procedural irregularities were detected during the April vote that ended with the lower chamber accepting impeachment charges against Rousseff, Maranhao said, according to Reuters.

It still remains unclear whether his decision could be overridden by the Supreme Court, the Senate, or a majority of votes in the house.

The leftist Rousseff, who denies any wrongdoing, may face trial on a charge of breaking budget laws.

The Senate had been expected to vote in favor of putting Rousseff on trial. At that point, she would have been suspended from her office for a period of up to six months, with Vice President Michel Temer taking over in the interim.

Maranhao is an ally of Governor Flávio Dino, one of the main supporters of President Rousseff. He took over the office of speaker from Eduardo Cunha, who orchestrated the impeachment process against Rousseff.

Cunha was suspended amid the investigation on charges of corruption, intimidation of lawmakers, obstruction of justice and abuse of power.