Brazil’s congress in chaos after Rousseff impeachment vote is erased

The Brazilian Senate has vowed to vote on the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff despite a ruling that a vote in the lower house was irregular.

The lower house’s acting speaker Waldir Maranhao, has called for a new vote in the lower house, attempting to halt progress of the vote in the senate, but senate speaker Renan Calheiros has rejected the attempt, calling that decision illegal.

The president of the Senate impeachment commission has insisted that the vote would take place as scheduled, on Wednesday to determine whether to start the impeachment trial.

Maranhao said that 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.

Maranhao opposed the impeachment process in the 17 April vote,  and took over as the speaker of the lower house last week, after the previous speaker, Eduardo Cunha was suspended. Cunha on the other hand, had led the impeachment drive against Roussef.

Roussef, who daces allegations that her government violated fiscal rules, manipulating the government budget ahead of her re-election in 2014, will be suspended from office should she lose the vote, pending a trial that could potentially last around six months.

Rousseff has said the efforts to impeach her amount to "a coup attempt" and that she is an “innocent victim” in the matter.

Brazil is in its worst recession in 25 years, with inflation at a 12-year-high in 2015.