Acting speaker of Brazil lower house annuls impeachment vote against Rousseff

The acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress announced Monday the decision to nullify the chamber's vote for an impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff and called for a new one.

Waldir Maranhao, taking over as acting speaker of Chamber of Deputies last week, accepted an injunction filed last week by Brazil's Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cardozo who said there are irregularities in the lower house's voting session on April 17.

In a news release, Maranhao listed several procedural flaws that comprises the voting results: the President's defense did not have the chance to speak during the voting session, hindering the right of defense.

Also, some political parties made the decision to support the impeachment or go against it, rather than letting representatives to vote based on their own will, he added.

The incident is only the latest twist in Brazil's political crisis, which culminated in the impeachment process against the president.

After the April lower house vote, the impeachment case was passed to the Senate, which would then vote whether to put the president on trial over charges of breaking budget laws, in a session scheduled for Wednesday.

Source: XINHUA