Brazil's Congress votes to impeach president Dilma Rousseff

Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted on Sunday to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, setting the stage for her removal from office and a battle over the political future of Latin America’s most populous country.

In a rowdy session of the lower house presided over by the president’s nemesis, house speaker Eduardo Cunha, 344 of the 513 deputies backed impeachment -- beyond the two-thirds majority (342) needed to advance the impeachment to the upper house..

The next step is for the Senate to vote on whether or not to try the president. If a simple majority votes yes, Rousseff will then have to stand trial in the upper chamber and step aside for as many as 180 days while the process plays out.

Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks to make her government’s budget deficit appear smaller than it really was. Rousseff has denied the charges.

Rousseff has become the least popular president since the last time a president was impeached in 1992 after presiding over the worst recession in 25 years, an unprecedented corruption scandal and a public health emergency.

Yet the country was divided over her removal with supporters arguing that the impeachment campaign was a just power-grab by the opposition.
Crowds of thousands filled the esplanade outside the national congress in the capital to follow the vote while demonstrations swept the country. The two sides were expected to clash as voting took place but most demonstrations passed off peacefully.