Brazilian president's impeachment vote annulled

The impeachment process against Brazil President Dilma Rousseff has been thrown into doubt. The acting speaker of the country's lower house, Waldir Maranhao, has annulled a vote in the house that allowed the proceedings to go on to the Senate. However, the President of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, later said the vote there would happen anyway.

Mr Maranhao said, there had been irregularities during the lower house session in which its members overwhelmingly voted in favour of the



impeachment process going ahead. He said, 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. 

Mr Maranhao called for a new vote in the lower house. The President of the Senate impeachment commission also said the vote would take place as scheduled. The Senate is scheduled to vote tomorrow on whether to start an impeachment trial.