Uruguay is going to elections where the left, which governed for 15 years, risks its return to power

Uruguay holds general elections on Sunday in which it will have to choose between the permanence of the coalition led by the National Party, of the charismatic current president Luis Lacalle Pou, or the return to power of the left, which lost its hegemony in 2019 after governing for 15 consecutive years.

Unlike previous campaigns, the electoral race was marked by voter apathy and minimal levels of citizen participation in the primaries for each party’s candidates.

Eleven political forces aspire to the electoral contest, where in addition to electing the president and vice president who will govern the country for the next five years, Uruguayans will also decide how Congress will be formed.

Polls indicate that, once again, the dispute will maintain the usual polarization between the leftist Frente Amplio, a formula headed by Yamandú Orsi who has the advantage, and the ruling National Party, represented by Álvaro Delgado, deputy of the current president Lacalle Pou.

If no one obtains half plus one of the votes, there will be a second round, which will be held on November 24 and in which the candidacy that obtains the simple majority will triumph.

Faced with signs of indifference from the electorate, both candidates seek to fill the gaps left by the great leaders who have marked the country’s politics in recent decades.

Orsi, 57, intends to return power to the Frente Amplio and be the renewal of a coalition historically led by two-time president Tabaré Vázquez, who died in 2020, and José “Pepe” Mujica, currently retired from the political scene and who faces serious health problems.

The leftist leads all the polls with more than 40% of voting intentions and an advantage of more than 15 points over his immediate official rival.

Delgado, for his part, appears in second place with between 20% and 24% of the support, after a timid campaign that was not enough to monopolize the support enjoyed by President Lacalle Pou, who has a higher acceptance than the 50% but cannot run for a new term since re-election is prohibited.

In third place appears the standard bearer of the conservative Colorado Party, Andrés Ojeda, with about 14% of the voting intention. The media lawyer, who presents himself as the face of the “new politics” with an unconventional strategy for Uruguayan politics that has mobilized social networks, set the goal of reaching second place and thus entering the runoff.

Both Orsi and Delgado have focused their campaigns on promising greater economic growth and improving the country’s competitiveness, although they are betting on different strategies. While the Broad Front’s standard-bearer related the country’s economic progress “with social inclusion,” the ruling party’s candidate is betting on the “re-election” of the government using the foundations left by Lacalle Pou’s mandate.

For his part, Ojeda defines himself ideologically as “pragmatic”, with proposals focused on mental health, animal welfare and the universalization of primary education.

Some 2.7 million voters must go to the polls throughout the country, where voting is secret and mandatory. In addition to choosing their future representatives, they must also decide on two plebiscites that, despite having very different themes, have divided the waters in the political landscape and in the electorate.

Voting in popular consultations is not mandatory and citizens will have to decide on whether the police can carry out night raids on homes and on a pension reform that seeks to restore the retirement age to 60 years and, among other points, eliminate private pension fund administrators.

These proposals will become effective if one or both are placed in the envelope by more than 50% of the voters.

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