Update: 3: 09 IST — The Brazilian Senate on Thursday voted for the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff for flouting budgetary laws ahead of the previous election. She will now be tried for the alleged crimes.
As many as 55 votes were cast in favour, while 22 were against initiating the impeachment trial, Reuters reported.
If found guilty, she would lose her position permanently.
Vice President Michel Temer will become the acting president of the country, which had been languishing in political and economic turmoil.
Update: 12:08 p.m. IST — At least 41 of the total 81 senators on Thursday said that they will vote for impeachment trial of President Dilma Rousseff, Reuters reported. Only seven senators have said that they are against the trial.
The final vote is expected to take place at dawn.
With the majority voting against Rousseff, Vice President Michel Temer will become the acting president and Rousseff will be suspended for at least six months. She could also be permanently removed from the position, if found guilty of violating budgetary laws.
Original Story — Brazilian Senate continued debating on Thursday whether to put President Dilma Rousseff on trial for allegedly falsifying government books and showing a smaller fiscal deficit before her re-election in 2014. The voting on the same is due to take place on Thursday.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected her plea to halt the impeachment proceedings against the president. Her counsel had argued that the proceedings must be stopped after the acting Speaker of the lower house said that the vote was incorrect due to procedural flaws, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Rousseff, the first female president of the nation who is facing allegations of having violated budget laws in Brazil, has steadfastly denied the claims and vowed to fight till the end.
If a simple majority in the Senate votes in favour of the impeachment, she will be suspended until her trial, which would take 180 days.
As many as 70 senators had registered to speak during the debate in the Senate, which began on Wednesday. At least 28 Senators spoke for going ahead with the impeachment, while seven were against it, BBC reported.
"Those who back this coup d'etat won't ever be forgiven," Senator Fatima Bezerra from Workers's Party, to which Rousseff belongs, was quoted as saying by BBC. Meanwhile, Communist Party of Brazil's Vanessa Grazziotin, who voted against the impeachment, said that this process was a way to end the social programmes begun by the Worker's Party.
Temario Mota of the Democratic Workers' Party said that "this impeachment was born of revenge, hatred and revenge."
Brazil was led by Rousseff into its worst crisis, Senator Aecio Neves belonging to Brazilian Social Democracy Party said.
Magno Malta of the Party of the Republic compared the Rousseff-led government to "gangrene" during his speech.
