Uruguayans took to the ballots on Sunday to cast their vote in the first round of the country’s presidential election.
Neither the governing center-right National Party (Partido Nacional) nor the center-left opposition Broad Front coalition (Frente Amplio) secured the 50% threshold needed to win the elections outright in the first round.
Broad Front presidential candidate Yamandú Orsi emerged leading in the polls with 44.9% of the vote, while National Party candidate Álvaro Delgado received 29.1%. In third place was conservative Andrés Ojeda of the Colorado Party (Partido Colorado), with 17.3% of the vote.
The Colorado Party is already in a coalition (known as the Republican Coalition or “Coalición Republicana”) with the ruling National Party, led by President Luis Lacalle Pou. Ojeda has said that he will support Delgado in the second round of elections, due to take place on November 24, in order to block a Broad Front victory.
Other parties in the governing Republican Coalition include right-wing party Open Cabildo (Cabildo Abierto) and centrist Independent Party (Partido Independiente), which won 2.5% and 1.8% of the vote respectively.
The next round is expected to be close. Assuming that Uruguayans who voted for other parties in the Republican Coalition vote for Delgado in the November runoff, the National Party may be able to triumph over the Broad Front coalition.
In response to the election results, Orsi declared: “It is a night of joy, of celebration of democracy, which for 40 years has uninterruptedly supported the republic and freedom, and this form of coexistence that we must be so grateful for.”
He added, “It’s time for change, for hope. Today, the Uruguayan people won. Today, hope triumphs and you are all here to show it.”
As for Delgado, he expressed: “Tonight Uruguay said that the [Republican] Coalition is the most-voted political party in our country,” and added, “The people gave this coalition the majority and the responsibility to continue governing Uruguay.”
Delgado also clarified his desire to represent the Republican Coalition as a whole. “Today I am giving up my party, what I was, what I am, to take it up a step. I am going from representing a party to representing a majority political project,” he said.
Uruguayans also voted on two referendums on Sunday: one that would have lowered the retirement age from 65 to 60, and another to remove constitutional curbs on nighttime police raids on private homes, as part of the fight against drug-related crime. Both proposals received less than 40% support.
In Uruguay, which has a population of 3.4 million and is home to 2.7 million eligible voters, voting in presidential and congressional elections is mandatory. Voter turnout on Sunday was 90%.
