Brazil's lower house green-lights presidential impeachment

The lower house of Brazil's parliament on Sunday evening gave the go-ahead for the impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.

The green light came after a two-thirds majority of the Chamber of Deputies, or 342 lawmakers, voted in favor of the move. It now means the Senate will open a formal impeachment trial in the coming weeks.

Should a two-thirds margin in the Senate be reached in its final vote, Rousseff would be remove from office, and Vice President Michel Temer from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, which has quit the ruling coalition, would become president.

In a spirited exchange on the Chamber floor, lawmakers were given their turn to briefly explain their votes.

While loyalists of the Workers' Party (PT), to which Rousseff belongs, thundered that they were fighting to prevent a coup, it soon became apparent that the result was swinging against the president. Enditem