By Lucinda Elliott
MONTEVIDEO/TREINTA Y TRES (Reuters) – Official presidential results in Uruguay on Sunday showed center-left candidate Yamandu Orsi will likely face conservative Alvaro Delgado in a second round next month, as no candidate secured the majority needed for a photo-finish.
Of the 60% of votes tallied, Orsi had secured 41.5% support, according to the official count on Sunday. Delgado had secured 28.69%, while Andres Ojeda, a young, social media savvy conservative, had secured 16.8%.
Ojeda has pledged to support Delgado to block a left victory if eventually knocked out in the first round.
If no presidential candidate gets more than 50% of the vote on Sunday, a second round will be held on Nov. 24.
Uruguay’s race between two centrist candidates bucks a Latin America trend of sharp right-left divides, with significant overlap between the major conservative and liberal coalitions taking some of the sting out of the result.
The nation of 3.4 million, known for its beaches, legalized marijuana and stability, also voted for its next vice president and members of parliament on Sunday.
Vote counting was also underway for two binding plebiscites – one on a pension reform that would lower the retirement age by five years to 60 and another that would boost police powers to fight drug-related crime. Exit polls show both were likely rejected.
Uruguayans appeared to reject the $22.5 billion pension overhaul, two exit polls showed on Sunday, defusing fears from investors and politicians that it could hurt the economy. According to local pollsters Cifra and Equipos Consultores, 61% of eligible voters struck down the proposal, versus 39% who voted in favor.
The security referendum also failed, according to Equipos Consultores, securing less than 40% support.
As polling stations closed on Sunday, hundreds of Broad Front supporters in capital Montevideo, where residents have historically supported the center-left, gathered by a stage overlooking the city’s waterfront to await the results.
“We are the party that grew the most in this election,” Orsi said addressing the crowds from the stage.
“In these next 27 days we’re going for that last push, with more desire than ever,” he added.
However, the mood was more subdued among Broad Front voters as results showed that the conservatives combined could eventually beat the left in a second round.
Miguel Angel Chirivao, 71, who had cast his ballot for the Broad Front, said it would be hard for the left to bounce back after Sunday’s result, which was tighter than expected.
“They had a poorer result than we expected, that’ll be difficult to reverse,” he said.
In Treinta y Tres, a rural region of eastern Uruguay that has traditionally voted conservative, 60-year-old farm worker Ramon Silveira, who cast his ballot for Delgado, said: “I want the trend of the last five years to continue.”
While security was an area the ruling coalition could improve on, Silveira was confident that with more time in government, crime rates would come down.
Uruguayans also voted on whether to remove constitutional curbs on nighttime police raids targeting private homes as a way to combat drug-related crime. Despite rising voter concerns over security, exit polls suggested the proposal was rejected.
The pension reform and security referendums require simple majorities to pass.
The ruling conservative coalition is struggling to defend its security record, but hopes successes on the economy – with both employment and real salaries on the rise – may be enough to convince voters in a run-off to choose continuity over change.
“I’m convinced that all the work we’ve done and what we represent is going to turn out well,” Delgado said earlier on Sunday.
(Reporting by Lucinda Elliott in Montevideo, additional reporting by Ana Ferreira in Treinta y Tres, Uruguay and Daniela Desantis in Asuncion; Editing by Adam Jourdan, Daniel Wallis, Mark Heinrich, Lisa Shumaker and Himani Sarkar)
