Brazil House Speaker Reverses His Impeachment Process Annulment

The interim President of the Brazilian Lower House of Congress Waldir Maranhao signed a decision Monday to invalidate April 17's vote by lawmakers to push forward the current impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff, but after the senate said they would ignore his decision and vote as planned on Wednesday, he reversed his decision.

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The move by Maranhao comes days after Brazil's Supreme Court suspended his predecessor Eduardo Cunha, who stands accused of corruption. He explained he wanted to add Vice President Michel Temer to the impeachment procedure, putting himself in line to assume the presidency if and when the Senate would have voted on the new process.

However, the Senate later announced it would move forward with the impeachment process, confirming they would vote on it Wednesday as planned.

Brazilian newspaper Folha reported that Maranhao backtracked because he believed the congressional vote exceeded the denouncement against Rousseff for budgetary irregularities and her involvement in the state-run oil company Petrobras scandal, from which she has been completely cleared after a meticulous investigation.

“For these reasons, I have annulled the session held on the 15, 16, and 17 of April, and determined that a new session will be held to deliberate the material during five sessions from the date that the process is returned from the Senate to the lower house,” he wrote in a press release.

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Maranhao added that, “In order for my decision to be carried out, I have sent this document to the Senate president so that the procedural documents of the impeachment process can be returned to the lower house.”

After learning of Maranhao's decision to annul the impeachment process and begin a new one, Rousseff made a public statement saying, “We have before us a hard fight ... full of difficulties ... There will be much struggle and many arguments.”

She insisted that, “this is a coup against many things... the democracy that elected the first worker, that elected the first woman.”

And again she said, “my disposition to fight until the end, is now more true than eve r... we have to defend democracy, fight against the coup, and fight against all of this process.”