BRASILIA – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has lost a crucial impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress on and appeared almost certain to be forced from office in a move that would end 13 years of leftist Workers’ Party rule.

The Chamber of Deputies voted 367-137, with seven abstentions and two no-shows, topping the necessary threshold of 342 votes to move the impeachment proceedings to the Senate. The upper house must decide whether she should stand trial for allegedly violating Brazil’s budget laws, with a decision expected in May.

As thousands of pro- and anti-impeachment protesters demonstrated outside Congress, the floor of the lower house was a sea of Brazilian flags and pumping fists as dozens of lawmakers carried the deputy who cast the decisive 342nd vote in their arms.

In Brazil’s largest cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, fireworks lit up the night sky and cars honked their horns in celebration after the vote.

If the impeachment is carried out, Rousseff would be suspended from her post and replaced by Vice President Michel Temer as acting president pending her trial. Temer would serve out Rousseff’s term until 2018 if she is found guilty.

The impeachment battle, waged during Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s, has divided the country of 200 million people more deeply than at any time since the end of its military dictatorship in 1985.

– with other agencies