Brazil: Rousseff impeachment vote "annulled"

The impeachment process against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has been thrown into doubt.

The acting Speaker of Brazil's lower house, Waldir Maranhao, has annulled a vote in the lower house on 17 April that allowed the proceedings to go on to the Senate.

The Senate was scheduled to vote on whether to start an impeachment trial on Wednesday.

It is not currently clear if that vote will now happen.

Mr Maranhao said there had been irregularities during the lower house session in which its members voted in favour of the impeachment process going ahead.

He said members of the lower house should not have publicly announced what their position was prior to the vote, and that it had been wrong of party leaders to instruct their members how to vote.

Mr Maranhao called for a new vote in the lower house to be held, but it is not yet clear whether the Senate will agree to return the proceedings to the lower house.

• It is also not known whether Mr Maranhao's decision can be overruled.

Mr Maranhao, who opposed the impeachment process in the 17 April vote, only took over as the speaker of the lower house last week, after the previous Speaker, Eduardo Cunha, was suspended....
BBC
9/5/16
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