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Brazilian Senate allows impeached Rousseff to work at state institutions

Initially, Dilma Rousseff was supposed to be automatically banned from working at state-run institutions for the next 8 years

RIO DE JANEIRO, August 31 /TASS/. Brazil’s Federal Senate (parliament’s upper house) on Wednesday allowed impeached Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to work at state institutions after her resignation by 36 votes (more than one third).

Initially, Rousseff was supposed to be automatically banned from working at state-run institutions for the next 8 years in case of the impeachment. However, Ricardo Lewandowski, Chairman of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court, said he did not see any legal barriers for holding another vote on that issue. Had the lawmakers voted for the ban, Rousseff would have been forbidden to teach at state-run educational establishments. Earlier, the former president had said she would like to read lectures at one of Brazilian universities.

Brazil’s Federal Senate (parliament’s upper house) on Wednesday voted out suspended President Dilma Rousseff by 61 votes against 20 without abstentions. It means she is going to quit her post for good. Vice-President Michel Temer will be the head of state until the end of 2018.

The vote took place by open ballot, in which all the 81 senators without exception (no one was absent) had taken part.

The impeachment supporters sang Brazil’s national anthem after the vote results had appeared on the electronic panel. Rousseff’s supporters shouted slogans in her support.

Alleged financial fraud during the first months of Rousseff’s second term in office is the impeachment supporters’ chief motive. They are accusing Rousseff of signing several decrees on the allocation of state funds without prior consultations with parliament and delaying payments to state banks. The opposition considers it as an attempt to conceal the budget deficit. Rousseff considers herself to be innocent and has called the impeachment initiative to be politically-motivated.