Uruguay's presidential runoff will be tight. But with rivals in agreement, it's no nail-biter

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay -- MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay's presidential election opened a monthlong window on Monday during which the leading center-left and center-right coalitions will go all-out to pull more voters into their camps ahead of a heated runoff.

The race is expected to be tight but the stakes are low in this prosperous South American nation where front-runners broadly share a consensus on continuing the business-friendly policies of current President Luis Lacalle Pou and ramping up efforts to tackle crime.

“Almost nothing changes,” read Monday’s lead editorial in the weekly Uruguayan newspaper Busqueda.

Voters on Sunday pushed Uruguay's moderate left-wing coalition 17 points ahead of the governing conservative candidate but not enough to avoid a second round of voting on Nov. 24.

Uruguayans soundly rejected two constitutional referendums, including a controversial pension overhaul proposal that would have lowered the retirement age in defiance of demographic trends and eliminated private pension schemes in favor of a public model that analysts warned would wreak fiscal havoc.

In stark contrast to recent elections in Uruguay's bigger, more polarized neighbors, Argentina and Brazil, the candidates ended their post-election events with speeches in praise of the nation's remarkable civility.

“Beyond our ranks, let all our compatriots know that we, as democrats of each party, will defend the healthy and respectful electoral competition that we value so much and advocate for on a global level,” said Yamandú Orsi, a two-time rural mayor and former history teacher with working-class roots who represented the Broad Front, a coalition of center-left and leftist parties that ran Uruguay from 2005-2020.

During that time, Uruguay legalized abortion, gay marriage and marijuana, becoming one of Latin America's most socially liberal nations.

With nearly all the ballots counted on Monday, results showed the Broad Front taking 43.9% of votes. That's less than the alliance anticipated, setting up a tight runoff that reflects conservative President Lacalle Pou's high approval ratings and general voter apathy after lackluster campaigns. Orsi has sought to reassure voters that he doesn't plan any kind of radical change.

The governing party's candidate, Álvaro Delgado, also played up Uruguay's regional reputation as a paragon of stability in his election night speech. Facing crowds of supporters as the results trickled in late Sunday, the former congressman and senior aide to Lacalle Pou, Delgado expressed respect for his challenger.

“We have that beautiful thing in Uruguay, tolerance,” Delgado said in what he called “a special greeting to Yamandú Orsi and all of the activists of the Broad Front.”

With vote counting almost over early Monday, Delgado had clinched 26.8% of the vote. Andres Ojeda, a young media-savvy candidate whose unlikely bid drew a surprising 16% of the vote, has pledged to back Delgado.

“The balance of power within the coalition has changed,” Ojeda said, ditching his earlier disdain for what he called Uruguay's “old politics” to proclaim unity with the governing National Party. “Today, we are the co-government of the Uruguay of the future.”

The outcome set the stage for a nearly four-week battle between the front-runners, upping the ante for candidate-voter outreach that has so far failed to inspire the electorate in stressing political continuity.

Uruguayan voters also filled Parliament on Sunday, giving the left-wing coalition a slight majority in the Senate with 16 out of 30 seats. Neither side secured a majority in the lower house.

Voting in the presidential and congressional contests is compulsory in the nation of 3.5 million, and the country's turnout rate topped 89% on Sunday.

But the large number of voters who left their ballot blank signaled that even if Uruguay's bland campaign season suggested the nation's quiet success as one of Latin America's strongest democracies, it also left voters ambivalent and weary.

Some, however, wanted to keep things that way.

“For outsiders, it may seem strange, but for us it's normal," street vendor Luis Alberto said of his country's temperate politics increasingly rare in the region. “We like to do everything calmly, we don’t like sudden changes or extremes.”

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina