Uruguay’s second-round presidential race between opposition center-left candidate Yamandu Orsi and continuity conservative runner Alvaro Delgado is set to take place on Sunday.
The vote in the small nation of 3.4 million people will see both candidates face off against fewer than 25,000 votes. Unlike recent elections in Argentina, Brazil, or Mexico, Uruguay’s political arena is relatively tension-free, with significant overlap between conservative and liberal coalitions.
Orsi, who has pledged a “modern left” policy approach, won 43.9% of the October vote for the Broad Front and will face Delgado, who secured 26.8% but also has the backing of the conservative Colorado Party. Both parties did the same in 2019, winning the election.
Both contenders aim to attract the roughly 8% of first-round voters who went for smaller, unaligned parties and those who failed to turn out in October. However, neither party has made new pledges in the final weeks to appeal to them, and pollsters say a televised debate on Nov. 17 appears to have had little effect.
As the biggest year for elections in history comes to an end, Uruguay may not follow a global trend of incumbent parties losing vote share compared to the previous election. Voters hurt by inflation and high living costs have punished parties in power, including in Britain, Japan, and the United States. A robust Uruguayan economy could help Delgado on Sunday, as there are few indications that voters are clamoring for significant political change.
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Source: NDTV
