By Laura Gamba
BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Yamandu Orsi, left-wing candidate and protégé of former President Jose "Pepe" Mujica, won the second round of Uruguay’s presidential election Sunday, according to independent polling firms conducting quick counts taken from small samples of ballots cast in the country.
With 97% of the ballots counted, Orsi obtained 49% of the vote, while his opponent, Alvaro Delgado of the ruling center-right coalition, won 46%.
"Congratulations to President-elect Orsi. He can count on us to build the agreements that Uruguay needs to continue moving towards development," said Delgado, 55, admitting defeat.
The 57-year-old history professor will succeed President Luis Lacalle Pou on March 1, 2025, who has an approval level close to 50% but is constitutionally prevented from immediate reelection.
“I called Yamandu Orsi to congratulate him as president-elect of our country,” Lacalle Pou wrote on X, adding he would “put himself at his service and begin the transition as soon as I deem it appropriate.”
With Orsi, the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) leftist alliance will return to power following its defeat in 2020 after three consecutive terms, one of them under the leadership of Mujica, who is 89 years old and recovering from esophageal cancer.
Orsi and Delgado took a lead over nine rivals in the first voting round on Oct. 27, but neither of them had enough votes to declare an outright victory. Voting in Uruguay is compulsory for more than 2.7 million people who are eligible to cast ballots for a new president.
Leftist leaders in the region congratulated the newly elected president, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"I want to congratulate the Uruguayan people for the holding of democratic and peaceful elections and, in particular, the elected President Yamandu Orsi, and my friend Pepe Mujica for today’s victory. It is a victory for all of Latin America and the Caribbean," Lula said in a message on X.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also sent a congratulatory message to Orsi.
“Congratulations to Yamandu Orsi and Carolina Cosse for their victory as president and vice president of the sister Eastern Republic of Uruguay. The Frente Amplio returns to govern by the will of the Uruguayan people, who once again demonstrate their democratic and progressive vocation,” she wrote on X.