Brazil President Dilma Rousseff impeached by Senate


Brazil's Senate has voted to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office for manipulating the budget.

It puts an end to 13 years in power of her left-wing Workers' Party. Ms Rousseff denies the charges.

Sixty-one senators voted in favour of her impeachment and 20 against, meeting the two-thirds majority needed to remove her from the presidency.

Acting President Michel Temer will serve out Ms Rousseff's term, which ends on 1 January 2019.

Mr Temer, from the centre-right PMDB party, is expected to be officially sworn in later on Wednesday.

Ms Rousseff had been suspended in May after the Senate voted to go ahead with the impeachment process.

She was accused of moving funds between government budgets, which is illegal under Brazilian law.

Her critics said she was trying to plug deficit holes in popular social programmes to boost her chances of being re-elected for a second term in October 2014.

Ms Rousseff fought the allegations, which she said amounted to a coup d'etat.

She argued that her right-wing political rivals had been trying to remove her from office ever since she was re-elected.

She was sworn in as Brazil's first female president in 2011 and re-elected to a second term in 2014 until her impeachment today the 31st August 2016.



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