Uruguay's presidential front-runners to face off in second round of voting

The leading contenders in Uruguay's presidential election on Sunday said voters in the small South American nation had sent the race to a run-off in November.

An early count of the general elections showed Uruguay's moderate leftist alliance leading over the conservative governing coalition with more than 60 per cent ballots tallied.

The leftist former mayor, Yamandu Orsi, and the ruling party candidate, Alvaro Delgado, told crowds of cheering supporters after midnight that they would face off in a second round of voting on November 24.

Uruguayans will decide whether to return the long-dominant centre-left coalition to power or continue the mandate of centre-right President Luis Lacalle Pou.

 

Electoral officials reported a turnout of 89 per cent of 2.7 million eligible voters in Uruguay, long considered a model democracy and bastion of stability where voting in presidential and congressional contests is compulsory.

Voters in the small South American nation of Uruguay waited anxiously on Sunday for the results of their presidential election as exit polls showed the country's centre-left alliance pulling ahead of the incumbent conservative coalition.

Ballot counting continued hours after polling stations closed in the contest between two moderates that defied trends of bitter division and democratic erosion across Latin America.

Electoral officials reported a turnout of 89 per cent of 2.7 million eligible voters in Uruguay, long considered a model democracy and bastion of stability where voting in presidential and congressional contests is compulsory.

With just over 40 per cent of the actual votes counted, exit polls by four prominent polling agencies predicted leftist Yamandu Orsi, a two-time rural mayor and former history teacher, would take some 42-44 per cent of the vote and lead over his rival, Alvaro Delgado, the centre-right government's candidate.

But the initial surveys of voters leaving the polls indicated that Orsi, from the Broad Front alliance, would fall short of the 50 per cent threshold he needed to avoid a runoff on November 24, reflecting voter apathy in the civilised presidential race between rivals whose priorities overlap.

Exit polls showed Delgado the former chief of staff of President Luis Lacalle Pou who started his career as a rural veterinarian and campaigned on pledges to continue the president's business-friendly policies clinching 27-28 per cent of the vote.

While in neighbouring Brazil and Argentina, voters recently vented their rage at the status quo, Uruguay's electorate remains largely satisfied with Lacalle Pou's tenure.

The president, barred from running for a second consecutive term, leaves office with a 50 per cent approval rating.

The electoral contest has largely focused on the rise in homicides and robberies, with the governing coalition advocating a tough-on-crime approach and the liberal coalition seeking to increase the state's role in security matters.

Voters are also concerned about the one in five Uruguayan children living in poverty and the low rate of high school graduations.

It was a presidential campaign far removed from the people that did not achieve the levels of engagement that Uruguay historically has, said Montevideo-based political analyst Julin Kanarek.

Speaking to thousands of energized supporters in Montevideo as authorities transmitted vote tallies, Orsi sounded cautiously optimistic.

We are going in for these 27 days, he told the crowds, referring to a final campaign push ahead of an expected second round next month. The Broad Front is once again the most voted party in Uruguay.

The show of support for the Broad Front, the coalition of centre-left and leftist parties that held the presidency in Uruguay from 2005-2019, signalled a desire for a stronger social safety net in one of Latin America's most expensive countries, where one in five children lives in poverty and an aging population has clamoured for higher pensions.

Over its 15 years in power, the Broad Front presided over robust economic growth and socially liberal laws that raised the tiny country's global profile with the pioneering legalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage and marijuana for recreational use.

Uruguay has also developed one of the world's greenest grids, powered by 98 per cent renewable energy.

With Orsi's working-class roots, casual wear and promise to eschew many of the benefits enjoyed by heads of state, voters appeared to endorse a candidate with same folksy appeal as the iconic ex-president Jose Pepe Mujica.

The eccentric former guerrilla and present-day chrysanthemum farmer helped spearhead Uruguay's transformation into the continent's most socially liberal country during his 2010-2015 presidency.

Now 89, Mujica is battling esophageal cancer, but he still managed to cast his ballot in Montevideo on Sunday. Arriving to vote in a wheelchair, he was quickly swarmed by reporters.

We need to support democracy, not because it is perfect, but because humans have not yet invented anything better, he told journalists.

As expected, exit polls showed long-shot candidate Andres Ojeda, 40, in a distant third. The muscular and media-savvy lawyer has tried to energise apathetic young voters with splashy campaign videos showing him lifting weights at the gym and describing himself as a classic Capricorn.

He backs the ruling coalition but flaunts an unconventional style that he said draws inspiration from other young charismatic leaders in Latin America wielding social media to amass fans, like El Salvador's populist Nayib Bukele and Argentina's radical libertarian Javier Milei.

It's a lesson to the system, Ojeda said of his meteoric rise from obscurity. The new politics is here to stay.

The presidential campaigns have played out without the vitriolic insults and personal attacks seen elsewhere, such as the United States, Argentina or Brazil.

More divisive than the race itself is a constitutional referendum that would overhaul Uruguay's social security system. The vote which would expand the fiscal deficit in one of Latin America's wealthiest countries has consumed more media attention in recent weeks than other campaign issues, such as child poverty, education and security.

If approved by more than 50 per cent of voters, the USD 23 billion scheme backed by the country's powerful unions would lower the retirement age, boost payouts and transfer Uruguayans' privately managed savings to a government-run trust.

Both leading candidates have spoken out against the proposal, which has already sent tremors through global markets. Shrugging off the fiscal consequences, supporters say it would redistribute Uruguay's resources more fairly in one of the region's most expensive countries where the average minimum pension stands around USD 450 a month.

It's about defending our rights, because now I am about to retire, Amara De Los Santos, 61, said after voting yes on the referendum.