Voting in presidential and parliamentary elections ended on Sunday in Uruguay without incident, Uruguayan media reported.
Voters in the small South American nation of Uruguay cast their ballots on Sunday in a presidential election in which a centre-left rural mayor comfortably beat the conservative incumbent party candidate, moving the race to a second round of voting.
Both leading candidates – two-time mayor and former history teacher Yamandú Orsi, 57, and centre-right ruling party candidate Álvaro Delgado, 55 – told a crowd late Sunday night that they would face each other in a heated second round on November 24, reflecting official election results when more than 90 percent of the votes were counted hours after polling stations closed.
Uruguay’s centre-left Broad Front alliance went to the polls as the frontrunner, reflecting a desire to strengthen the social safety net in one of Latin America’s most expensive countries, where one in five children lives in poverty and an ageing population is demanding higher pensions.
Broad Front served as Uruguay’s president for 15 years, from 2005 to 2020, presiding over strong economic growth and socially liberal laws that raised the tiny country’s global profile with the groundbreaking legalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage and marijuana for recreational use.
Much of that transformation occurred during the administration of former President Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an eccentric ex-guerrilla and current chrysanthemum farmer who backed Orsi. Orsi told thousands of enthusiastic supporters waving flags and lighting torches in Montevideo late Sunday, referring to the final phase of campaigning in the coming weeks:
“We are going in for these 27 days, The Broad Front is once again the most voted party in Uruguay.”
Orsi’s working-class roots, his casual dress and his promise to give up many of the perks enjoyed by heads of state seem to inspire Mujica, now 89 and battling oesophageal cancer. Mujica told reporters after casting his vote while sitting in a wheelchair:
“We need to support democracy, not because it is perfect, but because humans have not yet invented anything better.”
The broad front has long taken a more moderate stance than other leftist politicians in the region, such as in Venezuela and Bolivia. Orsi supports tax incentives to attract investors and, as mayor, sought to develop the country’s nascent high-tech industry.
Delgado, a former congressman who served as a senior aide to current President Luis Lacalle Pou, pledged in his campaign to continue the president’s business-friendly policies. Uruguay’s constitution does not allow for re-election, but Pou’s approval rating of around 50 per cent has strengthened his party’s candidacy.
Uruguay announced preliminary results
Preliminary results announced by electoral authorities showed Orsi leading with more than 41% of the vote, while Delgado garnered just over 27%. Since the exit polls became available, it has been clear that Orsi will not break the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a run-off election on November 24, reflecting voter apathy in a race between rivals whose talking points often overlap.
The electoral court said 89.1 per cent of Uruguayans went to the polls this Sunday in national and parliamentary elections, according to a Telemundo news release. That’s equivalent to about 2.2 million people out of the 2.7 million who are included. In 2019, 90.1 per cent of the electorate voted.
In this first time that the vote was secret and compulsory, as established by the National Constitution, eleven political parties presented themselves in search of the presidency.
The election also determines the formation of Parliament for the period 2025-2030. Each party presented its different lists, made up of its candidates, to unite the Chamber of Senators (30 members) plus the Vice President of the Republic) and the Chamber of Deputies (99 members).
