MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay’s leftist opposition candidate, Yamandú Orsi, claimed victory in a tight presidential runoff Sunday, ousting the conservative governing coalition and making the South American nation the latest to rebuke the incumbent party in a year of landmark elections.
Even as the vote count continued, Álvaro Delgado, the presidential candidate of the center-right ruling coalition, conceded defeat to his challenger.
“With sadness, but without guilt, we can congratulate the winner,” he told supporters at his campaign headquarters in the capital of Montevideo.
Fireworks erupted over the stage where Orsi, 57, a working-class former history teacher and two-time mayor from Uruguay’s center-left coalition known as the Broad Front, claimed victory as crowds flocked to greet him.
“The country of liberty, equality and fraternity has triumphed once again,” he said, vowing to unite the nation of 3.4 million people after such a tight vote.
“Let’s understand that there is another part of our country who have different feelings today,” he said. “These people will also have to help build a better country. We need them too.”
With nearly all the votes counted, electoral officials reported that Orsi won just over 49% of the vote, ahead of Delgado’s 46%. The rest cast blank votes or abstained in defiance of Uruguay’s enforced compulsory voting. Turnout reached almost 90%.
While failing to entice apathetic young voters and generating extraordinary indecision, Uruguay’s lackluster electoral campaigns steered clear of the anti-establishment fury that has vaulted populist outsiders to power elsewhere in the world, like in the United States and neighboring Argentina.
Delgado’s concession ushers in Orsi as Uruguay’s new leader and spells an end to a short stint by the center-right party in Uruguay. The 2019 election of President Luis Lacalle Pou interrupted 15 consecutive years of rule by the Broad Front.
“I called Yamandú Orsi to congratulate him as President-elect of our country,” Lacalle Pou wrote on the social media platform X, adding that he would “put myself at his service and begin the transition as soon as I deem it appropriate.”
Orsi’s victory was the latest sign that simmering discontent over post-pandemic economic malaise favors anti-incumbent candidates. In the many elections that took place during 2024, voters frustrated with the status quo have punished ruling parties from the U.S. and Britain to South Korea and Japan.
But unlike elsewhere in the world, Orsi is a moderate with no radical plans for change. He largely agrees with his opponent on key voter concerns like driving down the childhood poverty rate, now at a staggering 25%, and containing an upsurge in organized crime that has shaken the nation long considered among Latin America’s safest.
Despite Orsi’s promise to lead a “new left” in Uruguay, his platform resembles the mix of market-friendly policies and welfare programs that characterized the Broad Front’s tenure from 2005-2020.
The driving force behind Uruguay’s legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage and sale of marijuana a decade ago was former President José “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-Marxist guerilla who became a global icon and mentor to Orsi.
Mujica, now 89 and recovering from esophageal cancer, turned up at his local polling station before balloting even began on Sunday to praise Orsi’s humility and Uruguay’s proud stability.
Delgado, 55, a rural veterinarian with a long career in the National Party, served most recently as secretary of the presidency for Lacalle Pou and campaigned under the slogan “re-elect a good government.”
With inflation easing and the economy expected to expand by some 3.2% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, Delgado has promised to continue pursuing his predecessor’s pro-business policies. Lacalle Pou, who constitutionally cannot run for a second consecutive term, has enjoyed high approval ratings.
But the official results trickling in Sunday showed that mounting complaints in Uruguay about years of sluggish economic growth, stagnant wages and the government’s struggle to stem an upsurge in violent crime helped to swing the election against Delgado’s party.
In his victory speech, Orsi struck a conciliatory tone.
“I will be the president who calls for national dialogue again and again, who builds a more integrated society and country,” he said, adding that he would get to work “starting tomorrow.”
His government will take office on March 1, 2025.
Information for this article was contributed by Isabel DeBre of The Associated Press.
Yamandu Orsi, presidential candidate from the Frente Amplio (Broad Front), votes in the presidential run-off election in Canelones, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
A woman votes in the presidential run-off election in Canelones, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
A voter seals his ballot during the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
Pedestrians pass by Uruguay’s national flag and political party banners for sale on the day of the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Yamandu Orsi, presidential candidate from the Frente Amplio (Broad Front), talks to journalists after voting in the presidential run-off election in Canelones, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
A voter chooses his preference at polling station in the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Alvaro Delgado, candidate for the ruling National Party, talks to a boy after voting in the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Orbach)
Yamandu Orsi, presidential candidate from the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) talks to a boy after voting in the presidential run-off election in Canelones, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
Alvaro Delgado, candidate for the ruling National Party, waves to supporters after voting accompanied by his wife Leticia Lateulade, right, in the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Orbach)
Author :
Publish date : 2024-11-24 21:03:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
Author : theamericannews
Publish date : 2024-11-29 08:08:55
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.