Brazilian House votes to impeach Roussef

CNN reports:

After more than five hours of voting, a motion to impeach Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff garnered enough support to pass in the country’s lower house Sunday night, but voting is still ongoing. As of 11:08 p.m. (10:08 p.m. ET), at least 342 lawmakers had voted in favor of impeachment.

That is 342 out of 475 votes to date, so there are 38 votes still to be cast.

The next step is:

The impeachment motion would next go to the country’s Senate. If a majority approves it there, Rousseff will have to step down for 180 days to defend herself in an impeachment trial.

So the next step is for the Snate to vote to hold a trial – a simple majority of 41/81 votes needed.

Then after the trial the Senate votes whether to remove her from office, which needs a two thirds majority.

The NYT reports:

A former Marxist guerilla, Ms. Rousseff had never before held elected office, and critics say her lack of political skills hampered her ability to work with opposition members in Congress as well as key figures in her governing coalition.

And she diddled the books in order to get re-elected.