STORY: Uruguay seems poised for a run-off election next month.
That’s after a presidential vote on Sunday where neither candidate secured the majority needed for a first-round win.
Results showed that center-left candiate Yamandu Orsi of the Broad Front party secured over 41% with 60% of votes tallied,
while conservative Alvaro Delgado had secured around 29%.
Speaking to supporters Sunday evening in the capital Montevideo, which has historically backed the center-left,
Orsi struck an upbeat tone despite not securing an outright victory.
“It is a moment of joy, deep happiness, change, and hope. Today, the Uruguayan people have won; today, hope is triumphing, and you are here to prove it.”
However, the mood was more subdued among some Broad Front voters that Reuters spoke to, with some saying the result was tighter than they expected.
Sunday’s distant third place finisher was the young, social media savvy conservative Andres Ojeda.
He has pledged to support Delgado to block a left victory if he is knocked out in the first round.
His near 17% of votes, combined with Delgado’s 29%, according to current tallies, could be enough to eventually beat the left in a run off.
As initial results came in on Sunday, Delgado voiced confidence in his chances in a second round.
“Here is a team, a coalition that today has started to form a government, that there is a team, a coalition that today started to select a president of the Republic. There is a team, a coalition that will not allow our future to be taken away. We won’t allow it.”
Uruguay’s race between two centrist candidates bucks a Latin America trend of sharp right-left divides.
The significant overlap between the major conservative and liberal coalitions has taken some of the sting out of the result.
Vote counting was also underway Sunday for a binding referendum on pensi on reform that would lower the retirement age by five years to 60-
-and another that would boost police powers to fight drug-related crime.
Exit polls show both were likely rejected.
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Publish date : 2024-10-27 17:58:00
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