BREAKING: Impeachment, Senate votes, President suspended
– President Dilma Rousseff has been suspended
– Her suspension follows a vote by the Brazilian Senate
– The Senate voted 55 votes to 22, sustaining motion for suspension
– Michel Temer the vice president will now take over till Ms Dilma’s trial is over
The Brazilian Senate has voted to impeach and suspend President Dilma Rousseff, and now she is to face trial.
According to the BBC, Ms Rousseff is accused of illegally manipulating finances to hide a growing public deficit ahead of her re-election in 2014, which she denies.
Dilma Rousseff had said the impeachment proceedings were a coup
Sources reveal that senators voted to suspend her by 55 votes to 22 after an all-night session that lasted more than 20 hours.
Vice-President Michel Temer will now assume the presidency while Ms Rousseff’s trial takes place.
The trial may last up to 180 days, which would mean Ms Rousseff would be suspended during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, which start on Friday, August 5.
Following the suspension of President Dilma, she gets to keep her presidential residence, but won’t be acting in the presidential capacity.
Ms Rousseff made a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court to stop proceedings, but the move was rejected. Her suspension brings an end to 13 years of the rule of her Workers’ Party.n
Ms Rousseff, who was first sworn into office in January 2011 and started a second term in 2015, has called the steps to remove her a “coup”.
READ ALSO: Tension: Buhari deceived us, Goodluck Jonathan meant well for us – Nigerians spit venom
In a speech at the end of the all-night Senate session, attorney general Jose Eduardo Cardozo said that the impeachment request did not have legal basis and that the opposition wanted to remove a democratically-elected president.
He said senators were condemning an “innocent woman” and that impeachment was a “historic injustice”.
All 71 senators present for the vote made their case for or against impeachment in 15-minute slots. They finished at 05:45 local time (08:45GMT), more than 20 hours after the session opened.
The suspended Brazilian President get to keep getting paid pending the outcome of her trial.
In the Senate, the arguments given for the trial were mainly economic.
Many blamed President Rousseff for the dire straits the country’s economy is in.
Brazil is suffering from its worst recession in 10 years, unemployment reached 9% in 2015 and inflation is at a 12-year high.
Senator Aecio Neves, who lost to Ms Rousseff in the 2014 presidential election, said: “Populist governments always act with fiscal irresponsibility and when they fail they appeal to the old ‘us vs them’ argument.”
READ ALSO: Unbelievable! Rivaldo warns tourists against visiting Brazil
It is still up for debate if Dilma get to keep/fly the presidential planes and helicopters following her suspension.
The poorest and most vulnerable in society, who need the government support the most, always end up paying the bill,” he added.
Mr Neves said he would vote for an impeachment trial.
Ataides Oliveira of the opposition PSDB party said that “today, we’re going to retrieve the country from the hands of the PT (Ms Rousseff’s Workers’ Party) and give it back to the Brazilian people”.
Due to the duration of her trial, Dilma is most likely to miss out on playing the host to the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Former football player turned senator Romario said Brazil was in “a very serious crisis” before revealing that “after much thought” he had decided to back her impeachment trial.
In the same vein, as the senators put forward their views, protesters in the capital Brasilia and other cities demonstrated for and against the proceedings.
Some, like the protest in front of Congress in Brasilia got out of hand, prompting authorities to disperse the crowds.
“It is revolting, we are here defending our democracy, and those yes-men spray us with tear gas, they are cowards,” one protester, Celma Pereira, a teacher, said.
CNN reports that President Rousseff will now have to step down while the impeachment trial proceeds.
READ ALSO: Five Nigerians that can win gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics
President Dilma will have restricted access to Brazil’s presidential offices.
There, she will host former president and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, universally known as Lula, along with ministers and other authorities, to sign a notification telling her she needs to step aside for the duration of the impeachment trial.
She will then address the media, and vacate the presidential office. Following that, she will return to the presidential residence, Palacio da Alvorada.
The embattled Brazilian President gets to keep her members of staff even after the suspension.
She retains her title as president by law, but she will not be fulfilling the duties of that office. Vice President Michel Temer will serve as interim president while the impeachment trial takes place.
In the next few hours, Sen Vicentinho Alves will deliver the senate’s decision to Rousseff at her presidential office.
The post BREAKING: Impeachment, Senate votes, President suspended appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM (Nigerian newspapers).