{"id":424122,"date":"2024-11-25T23:06:40","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T23:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=424122"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Left-wing-candidate-Orsi-wins-Uruguay-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Left-wing-candidate-Orsi-wins-Uruguay-presidential-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Left-wing candidate Orsi wins Uruguay presidential election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left-wing politician Yamandu Orsi was elected president of Uruguay, official results showed on Sunday, in a rebuke by voters of five years of conservative rule.<\/p>\n

Uruguayans went to the polls for the second round of voting in what became a tight race between Orsi, of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) alliance, and Alvaro Delgado of the National Party, a member of outgoing President Luis Lacalle Pou’s center-right Republican Coalition.<\/p>\n

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

Delgado meanwhile conceded defeat, saying he was sending “a big hug and a greeting to Yamandu Orsi.”<\/p>\n

Though the election will shift the balance of power in Uruguay, analysts did not foresee a massive change in the country’s economic direction, with Orsi having previously promised “change that will not be radical.”<\/p>\n

Both candidates pledged to fight crime linked to drug trafficking and to boost economic growth, which is recovering from the slowdown brought by the Covid-19 pandemic and a historic drought.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Cheers broke out in the capital Montevideo, a bastion of Frente Amplio support, when projections showing Orsi in the lead were announced.<\/p>\n

His campaign was boosted by support from Jose “Pepe” Mujica, a former guerrilla lionized as “the world’s poorest president” because of his modest lifestyle during his 2010-2015 time in office.<\/p>\n

Orsi, seen as an understudy of Mujica, had garnered 43.9 percent of the October 27 first-round vote — short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff but ahead of the 26.7 percent of ballots cast for Delgado.<\/p>\n

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

Following October legislative elections, Orsi will govern with a majority in the Senate, though the Frente Amplio is in the minority in the Chamber of Representatives.<\/p>\n

– ‘A very different world’ –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Orsi’s victory will see Uruguay swing left again after five years of center-right rule in the country of 3.4 million inhabitants.<\/p>\n

In 2005, the Frente Amplio coalition broke a decades-long conservative stranglehold with an election victory and held the presidency for three straight terms.<\/p>\n

It was voted out in 2020 on the back of concerns about rising crime blamed on high taxes and a surge in cocaine trafficking through the port of Montevideo.<\/p>\n

Polling numbers ahead of the vote showed perceived insecurity remains Uruguayans’ top concern five years later.<\/p>\n

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 in the street with peace of mind, as an old person, as a young person, as a child.”<\/p>\n

Congratulations rolled in from across Latin America, including from Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and Chile’s Gabriel Boric.<\/p>\n

“This is a victory for all of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Lula said on X.<\/p>\n

Outgoing leader Pou said on social media that he called Orsi “to place myself at his disposal to begin the transition as soon as I think it is appropriate.”<\/p>\n

Voting is compulsory in Uruguay, one of Latin America’s most stable democracies, with comparatively high per-capita income and low poverty levels.<\/p>\n

During the heyday of leftist rule, Uruguay legalized abortion and same-sex marriage, became the first Latin American country to ban smoking in public places and the world’s first nation, in 2013, to allow recreational cannabis use.<\/p>\n

Former president Mujica, who is battling cancer and had to use a cane to walk into his polling station to vote, said Sunday: “Personally, I have nothing more to look forward to. My closest future is the cemetery, for reasons of age.<\/p>\n

“But I am interested in the fate of you, the young people who, when they are my age, will live in a very different world.”<\/p>\n

bur-mlr\/rmb\/nro\/dhw<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yamandu Orsi (L), the presidential candidate of Uruguay’s Broad Front, is running against Alvaro Delgado (R) of the National Party<\/p>\n

-SANTIAGO MAZZAROVICH
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Uruguay is one of Latin America’s most stable democracies, boasting comparatively high per-capita income and low levels of poverty<\/p>\n

-Eitan ABRAMOVICH
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Uruguayan ex-president Jose Mujica voted in the first election round on October 27<\/p>\n

-Pablo PORCIUNCULA
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Uruguay’s presidential candidate for the Republican Coalition, Alvaro Delgado (C) cast his vote in the capital Montevideo<\/p>\n

-DANTE FERNANDEZ
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Uruguay’s presidential candidate for the Frente Amplio party, Yamandu Orsi (L), cast his ballot in the rural Canelones region<\/p>\n

-Eitan ABRAMOVICH
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Uruguay’s former President (2010-2015) Jose Mujica is battling cancer but used a cane to walk into this polling station to vote on Sunday<\/p>\n

-Santiago Mazzarovich
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Former history teacher Yamandu Orsi of the leftist Frente Amplio (Broad Front) is going head-to-head with ex-veterinarian Alvaro Delgado of the National Party<\/p>\n

-Eitan ABRAMOVICH
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Voting is compulsory in Uruguay, one of Latin America’s most stable democracies<\/p>\n

-Santiago Mazzarovich
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Yamandu Orsi’s campaign was boosted by support from Jose “Pepe” Mujica, a former guerrilla lionized as “the world’s poorest president”<\/p>\n

-Eitan ABRAMOVICH
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Yamandu Orsi’s campaign was boosted by support from Jose “Pepe” Mujica, a former guerrilla lionized as “the world’s poorest president”<\/p>\n

-Santiago Mazzarovich
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Conservative candidate Alvaro Delgado conceded defeat in the presidential election<\/p>\n

-EITAN ABRAMOVICH
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Supporters of Yamandu Orsi celebrated in Uruguay’s capital Montevideo<\/p>\n

-Dante FERNANDEZ
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left-wing politician Yamandu Orsi was elected president of Uruguay, official results showed on Sunday, in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}