Brazil: Approved Rousseff's impeachment request

By 367 votes, the floor of the Chamber of Deputies approved the admissibility of President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment request on Sunday (Apr. 17) evening.

Deputies were namely called to vote according to the order imposed by internal rules of the Chamber of Deputies, from the North to the South Region. Deputy Abel Galinha (member of the opposition party Democratas) was the first to record his vote, and he said "yes" to impeachment.

The impeachment request, signed by the lawyers Miguel Reale Jr., Janaína Paschoal and Hélio Bicudo, was accepted by Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha in December 2015 and was based on the argument that Rousseff committed crime of responsibility, referring to delays in government transfers to state banks to fund the payment of welfare benefits, which is known as accounting tricks. The authors of the request also mentioned spending decrees signed without congressional authorization as a reason for ousting the president.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta