Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff was suspended from office on Wednesday after the country’s Upper House, called the Senate, voted to impeach her. She will be barred from her duties for at least six months while she is tried in the Upper House for allegedly mismanaging government funds and fudging the national budget ahead of the previous elections. A total of 55 of the Senate’s 81 members voted in favour of impeachment, 22 voted against, and the remaining did not vote.
The Workers’ Party leader, who was serving her second term as the country’s first woman president, has faced severe criticism for Brazil’s struggling economy, corrupt colleagues and political paralysis. The country is currently facing is a massive recession.
Rousseff’s impeachment has been the subject of widespread debate and political back-and-forths. On Monday, the new speaker of the Lower House Waldir Maranhão said he would annul its impeachment vote, but he retracted after facing ridicule and the threat of expulsion from his party.
However, some have questioned the grounds for impeachment, saying it is a disingenuous attempt to seize power, as several of the legislators who voted against her are themselves facing criminal corruption charges.
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