General
Uruguay’s Presidential Election Is Headed to a November Runoff
Yamandú Orsi, a center-left former mayor, finished first on Sunday but fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid another round of voting.
Uruguay’s presidential election was pushed into a second round of voting on Sunday, as a center-left former mayor finished ahead of the center-right governing coalition’s candidate.
With more than 80 percent of the votes counted, both leading candidates — Yamandú Orsi, a two-time mayor and former history teacher, and Álvaro Delgado, who was the current president’s chief of staff — told crowds of supporters that they expected to face each other in a runoff on Nov. 24.
Exit polls showed Mr. Orsi with 42 percent to 44 percent of the vote, well ahead of Mr. Delgado but short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright. Mr. Delgado had 27 percent to 28 percent of the vote, according to polls.
Mr. Orsi represents the center-left Broad Front alliance, which held the presidency from 2005 to 2019. He went into the election as the front-runner, reflecting a desire for a stronger social safety net in one of Latin America’s most expensive countries.
“We are going in for these 27 days,” he told thousands of supporters in Montevideo, the capital, referring to the final campaign push.
