Uruguay’s once-dull election has become a dead heat in presidential run-off

Uruguayans went to the polls on Sunday for a second round of voting to choose their next president, with the conservative governing party and the left-leaning coalition locked in a close run-off after failing to win an outright majority in last month’s vote.

The staid election has turned into a hard-fought race between Alvaro Delgado, the incumbent party’s candidate, and Yamandu Orsi from the Broad Front, a coalition of leftist and centre-left parties that governed for 15 years until the 2019 victory of centre-right President Luis Lacalle Pou.

The Broad Front oversaw the legalisation of abortion, same-sex marriage and the sale of marijuana in the small, laid-back South American nation of 3.4 million people.

Delgado served most recently as Secretary of the Presidency for Lacalle Pou and promises to press on with his predecessor’s pro-business, market-friendly policies. He would continue pursuing a prospective trade deal with China that has raised hackles in Mercosur, an alliance of South American countries that promotes regional commerce.

Orsi’s Broad Front took 44 per cent of the vote while Delgado’s National Party won 27 per cent in the first round of voting on October 27. But the other conservative parties that make up the government coalition – in particular, the Colorado Party – notched 20 per cent of the vote collectively, enough to give Delgado an edge over his challenger this time around.

Congress ended up evenly split in the October vote. Most polls have shown a virtual tie between Delgado and Orsi, with nearly 10 per cent of Uruguayan voters undecided even at this late stage.