Cargreen

Left-wing politician Yamandú Orsi was elected president of Uruguay, official results showed Sunday, in a rebuke by voters to five years of conservative rule.

Uruguayans went to the polls for the second round of voting in what became a tight race between Orsi, of the Frente Amplio (Breed Front) alliance, and Álvaro Delgado of the National Party, a member of outgoing president Luis Lacalle Pou’s center-right Republican party. Coalition.

Orsi promised in a victory speech on Sunday evening to be a president “who calls again and again for a national dialogue to find the best solutions.”

Delgado, meanwhile, admitted defeat and said he was sending “a big hug and greetings to Yamandú Orsi.”

Although the elections will shift the balance of power in Uruguay, analysts did not foresee a massive change in the country’s economic direction. Orsi had previously promised ‘change that will not be radical’.

Both candidates pledged to fight crime linked to drug trafficking and boost economic growth, which is rebounding from the slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and a historic drought.

Orsi won 1,196,798 votes, compared to Delgado’s 1,101,296, the country’s electoral court said, 49.8 percent to 45.9 percent.

Cheers broke out in the capital Montevideo, a stronghold of Frente Amplio supporters, when projections were announced that would put Orsi in the lead.

His campaign was boosted by the support of José “Pepe” Mujica, a former guerrilla who was labeled “the poorest president in the world” for his modest lifestyle during his 2010-2015 term.

Orsi, seen as an understudy to Mujica, had secured 43.9 percent of the vote in the October 27 first round – less than the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff, but higher than the 26.7 percent of votes cast for Delgado.

The pair came out on top in a crowded field of 11 candidates seeking to replace Lacalle Pou, who has a high approval rating but is constitutionally barred from a second consecutive term.

After October’s parliamentary elections, Orsi will rule with a majority in the Senate, although the Frente Amplio is in a minority in the Chamber of Representatives.

‘A completely different world’
Orsi’s victory will see Uruguay swing left again after five years of center-right rule in the country of 3.4 million.

In 2005, the Frente Amplio coalition broke a decades-long conservative stranglehold with an election victory and held the presidency for three consecutive terms.

It was voted down in 2020 over concerns about rising crime due to high taxes and an increase in cocaine trafficking through the port of Montevideo.

Pre-election polls showed that perceived uncertainty remains Uruguayans’ top concern five years later.

A 72-year-old retiree who voted, Juan Antonio Stivan, said he just wanted the next government to “guarantee safety – to be able to go out on the streets with peace of mind, as an old person, as a young person, as child.”

Congratulations poured in from across Latin America, including from Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and Chile’s Gabriel Boric.

“This is a victory for all of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Lula said on X.

Outgoing leader Pou said on social media that he was calling Orsi “to put myself at his disposal to begin the transition as soon as I think it is appropriate.”

Voting is compulsory in Uruguay, one of Latin America’s most stable democracies, with a relatively high per capita income and low poverty rates.

During the heyday of left-wing rule, Uruguay legalized abortion and same-sex marriage, became the first Latin American country to ban smoking in public places and, in 2013, the first country in the world to allow recreational cannabis use.

Former President Mujica, who is battling cancer and had to use a cane to walk into his polling station to vote, said on Sunday: “Personally, I have nothing to look forward to anymore. My nearest future is the cemetery, for age reasons.

“But I am interested in the fate of you, the young people who, when they are my age, will live in a completely different world.”

by By Alina Dieste