Interim Lower House Speaker Decides to Annul Rousseff's Impeachment Vote

05/09/2016 - 14h00

The acting speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress, Waldir Maranhão (PP-MA), annulled the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff this Monday (9) and called for a new vote in the House.

Maranhao said that there were procedural flaws in the April 15 and 17 vote in the lower house that accepted the impeachment proceedings against Rousseff.

The impeachment has already advanced in the Senate, where the recommendation was approved by special committee, and the voting is scheduled for this Wednesday (11), when senators will decide on removing Rousseff from office for 180 days. It is not clear if the current schedule will be honored.

One of the reasons behind the decision to annul the process is that the parliamentary group was swayed, which compromises the lawmakers' voting freedom.

Maranhão welcomed the AGU's (Attorney General) appeal questioning the voting for Rousseff's impeachment process on April 17th. The impeachment was approved by 367 votes versus 137, in favor of the opening of the proceedings.

Maranhão is an ally of governor Flávio Dino (PC do B-MA), one of Rousseff's main allies, and voted against the House's authorization of the opening of the impeachment proceedings.

Formerly the Vice-President of the Lower House, Maranhão assumed leadership of the House last week after the Supreme Court decided to suspend Eduardo Cunha's (PMDB-RJ) mandate as Lower House Speaker, who was a leading force behind the impeachment in the legislature.

In the appeal, the AGU pointed at illegalities such as vote swaying by party leaders, vote motivations unrelated to the issue at hand (those who voted "for the family", for example), rapporteur demonstrations on voting day, no open space defense after that speech and failure to adopt a resolution that would solidify the Plenary's decision.

Translated by SUGHEY RAMIREZ

Read the article in the original language