Brazilian lawmakers vote to impeach President Rousseff

Brazil's lower house has voted to start impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff over charges of manipulating government accounts.

The "yes" camp comfortably won the required two-thirds majority, after a lengthy session in the capital.

The motion will now go to the upper house, the Senate, which is expected to suspend Ms Rousseff next month while it carries out a formal trial.

She denies tampering with the accounts to help secure her re-election in 2014.

Her supporters describe the vote as a "coup against democracy" and the ruling Workers' Party has promised to continue its fight to defend her "in the streets and in the Senate".

But Ms Rousseff is an unpopular leader in a country facing a severe economic crisis, the BBC's Wyre Davis reports from Brazil.

Impeachment supporters netted 367 votes in the lower house of Congress, well above the 342 they needed.

The "no" camp took 137 votes, seven deputies abstained and two did not show for the ballot.

Defending Ms Rousseff, Afonso Florence of the Workers' Party urged MPs to have a "democratic conscience".

A pro-impeachment MP, Antonio Imbassahy of the PSDB party, called for Brazil's "moral reconstruction."

Victory came loud and colourful as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators were watching the vote live on huge TV screens on city streets across the country.

Rousseff opponents, who turned out in fancy dress, and the green and yellow of the national flag, partied to music, blowing trumpets and vuvuzelas.

It was a humiliating moment for Brazil's first woman president.

Early next month, the Senate will vote on whether to put the president on trial.

If the vote passes, she will be suspended and replaced by her Vice-President, Michel Temer.

The actual Senate trial could last up to six months.

If two-thirds of senators vote to impeach, Dilma Rousseff is out of office for good.

However, she would have two chances to appeal.

Source: BBC