Uruguay heads for presidential run-off after Orsi fails to reach 50%

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Leftist history teacher Yamandú Orsiand and centre-right veterinarian Álvaro Delgado will duel for the presidency of Uruguay next month after topping the first round of elections Sunday.

Orsi, of the left-wing Frente Amplio party, and Delgado, who hails from outgoing President Luis Lacalle Pou's ruling coalition, will go head-to-head in the November 24 election run-off.

With more than 99 percent of votes counted, Orsi had 43.9 percent against Delgado's 26.7 percent, electoral court results on Monday showed.

A second round of voting is held when no candidate wins an outright majority of over 50 percent.

Orsi, 57, and Delgado, 55, beat out nine other candidates bidding to replace Lacalle Pou, who has a 50-percent approval rating but is barred from seeking a second consecutive five-year term.

Orsi rallied voters on Sunday night, calling for a final push "with more desire than ever" at the run-off.

"There is little left, we will triumph!" he said.

Delgado meanwhile celebrated alongside partners of the ruling coalition, which he called the "most voted political project in this country."

'They're not coming back'

A victory for Orsi in the presidential run-off would see Uruguay swing left again after five years of conservative rule.

The Frente Amplio held the presidency for three-straight terms until it was voted out in 2020.

Patricia Varela, a 36-year-old law student, attended a call by the party to "celebrate hope" Sunday in Montevideo.

"I support the Frente Amplio because we need a government that governs for everyone and not for a few," she said, surrounded by flag-waving party faithful.

But Varela admitted that she had expected "a little more" support for Orsi, who underperformed compared to his polling numbers.

Supporters of Delgado celebrated his runoff spot at a rival gathering in Montevideo, chanting, "They're not coming back, they're not coming back" in reference to the left.

Orsi is seen as the understudy to the much-loved Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla who is 89 and battling cancer.

Mujica, who was lionised as "the world's poorest president" during his 2010-2015 rule because of his modest lifestyle, cast his ballot in a wheelchair in a low-income district of Montevideo.

Crime and pensions

Polls showed crime to be the main concern of voters in the country of 3.4 million inhabitants, with high per-capita income and low levels of poverty compared to the rest of South America.

Much of the violence is blamed on a surge in the trafficking of cocaine south through the continent to the port of Montevideo, from where it is shipped to Europe.

Uruguayans on Sunday were called to vote on a proposal backed by the centre-right to allow police to carry out night-time raids on homes as part of the fight against drugs.

But the plebiscite did not receive the 50 percent of votes needed for it to be approved.

A second plebiscite on a proposal to lower the minimum age for a pension from 65 to 60 and to ban private pension schemes obtained only 38.8 percent support.

Voting is compulsory in Uruguay, which gained a reputation as a liberal mould-breaker under Mujica and two-time left-wing president Tabaré Vásquez between 2005 and 2020.

The nation legalised abortion and same-sex marriage, was the first Latin American country to ban smoking in public places and the world's first nation to allow recreational cannabis use.

Uruguay has also blazed a trail in terms of transitioning away from fossil fuels, with over 90 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources.

by Alina Dieste, AFP

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