BUENOS AIRES
Uruguayans went to the polls Sunday in what is expected to be a tight race for the leftist Broad Front party to sustain the presidency after a decade of rule against a 41-year-old conservative.
Broad Front’s candidate, Tabare Vazquez, arrived early to vote in Montevideo with the hope of averting a second-round to become president again after holding the spot from 2005 to 2010.
In televised comments, Vazquez said he was confident that Uruguayans will vote for him thanks to his experience as mayor of Montevideo from 1990 to 1995 and as president from 2005-2010, a term he ended with a 60 percent approval rating.
Vazquez, however, couldn’t seek immediate reelection at that time because the Constitution bars back-to-back terms.
Now it may prove difficult for the 74-year-old oncologist from working-class roots and an outspoken critic of tobacco to return to power, as most polls show he will get between 44 percent and 46 percent of the votes, shy of the 50.1 percent needed to win outright in the first round.
If the vote goes to a runoff, it will be held Nov. 30, and the opposition could amass enough votes to make it harder for Vazquez to win, according to political analysts.
The polls close at 7:30 p.m. local time (2130GMT), with an hour grace period. The country is voting for president as well as 30 senators and 99 deputies in Congress.
A total of 2.6 million Uruguayans will vote in the country of 3.3 million, the second smallest in South America.
While tiny, Uruguay has won the attention of foreign investors, who have piled in to develop everything from agriculture to paper mills and wind farms thanks to economic and legal stability.
Broad Front has held power for the past decade, with Vazquez and Jose Mujica, the current president, winning accolades at home and abroad for economic stability as well as progressive social reforms like the legalization of abortion, gay marriage and the production and sale of marijuana.
Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla fighter, voted early Sunday, arriving in his only car, a 1987 Volkswagen beetle, with his wife, Sen. Lucia Topolansky.
They drove in from their small farm on the outskirts of the capital, where the 79-year-old lives an austere life that has earned him the title of the world’s humblest president. Mujica is running for senator.
Vazquez faces his toughest competitor in Luis Lacalle Pou, a 41-year-old lawyer and congressman of the conservative National Party.
Lacalle Pou is the son of former president Luis Alberto Lacalle who served from 1990-95 and is expected to get 32 percent of the votes, according to polls.
He greeted his supporters in various parts of the capital on Sunday before voting at noon and then headed for lunch with family friends.
The young politician has said he will continue with the economic orthodoxy that has brought stability, but will do more to reduce a fiscal deficit and rein in 9 percent annual inflation. He also has spoken out against the legalization of cannabis, saying he will repeal the law.
The other leading contender, who lags with 15 percent of the votes according to the latest polls is Pedro Bordaberry of the conservative Colorado Party.
The 54-year-old lawyer gained experience in politics as the minister of tourism and then industry under President Jorge Batlle, who ran the country from 2000-05, and is now a senator. Like Lacalle Pou, Bordaberry is the son of a former president, Juan Maria Bordaberry, who went on to rule as a dictator in the 1970s.
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