MADRID 24 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The polling stations opened this Sunday in Uruguay in the framework of the second round of the presidential elections, which pit the candidate of the Frente Amplio, Yamandú Orsi, and the candidate of the ruling National Party, Álvaro Delgado.
One of the first to introduce his ballot into the polls was the former Uruguayan president José Mujica, who arrived ten minutes before the opening of his polling station, around 8:00 a.m. (local time), according to the newspaper ‘El País’. ‘.
Voting is mandatory in Uruguay, so if a citizen does not come to deposit their ballot in the ballot box, they will be subject to fines from the electoral body. The polls will remain open until 7:30 p.m. (local time) on a day in which 2.7 million people are called to vote.
According to the main surveys, the presidential ticket of Orsi and his candidate for vice president, Carolina Cosse, has around 48 percent of voting intentions, a few points ahead of Delgado and his candidate for ‘number two’, Valeria Ripoll. , which have the support of more than 46 percent. According to these data, the elections would be decided by the remaining 6 percent of undecided people.
The question now is whether the National Party – also known as the White Party – is capable of uniting the votes of the rest of the political formations, as has happened in the past. In 2019, the majority of formations opposed to the Broad Front gathered around the Republican Coalition – also known as the Multicolor Coalition – to avoid a progressive government.
The question then becomes whether Delgado will obtain the majority support of the voters of the Colorado Party, Cabildo Abierto or the Constitutional Environmentalist Party, all of them formations on the political spectrum of the right or extreme right, and with positions openly contrary to those of the Frente Amplio. , which barely has support from other parties.
Orsi and Delgado became the two most voted options in the first round of the presidential elections on October 27. In those elections the ‘broad front’ Orsi garnered 43.85 percent of the votes compared to the 26.82 obtained by the ‘white’ candidate, who does have a fairly wide margin of improvement thanks to the support of the rest of the parties of the Multicolor Coalition.
That first round was held in parallel with the parliamentary elections, which served for the Frente Amplio to hit the table by gaining the majority in the Senate and being just one deputy away from also obtaining the majority in the Lower House. , where now he must reach an agreement to take over the Government.
THE BROAD FRONT SEEKS TO GIVE A TURN TO URUGUAY
Orsi is a prominent leader of the Popular Participation Movement (MPP) – led by the historic former president Mujica and integrated into the Frente Amplio coalition – who has served as head of government of the governorate of Canelones, in the south of Uruguay, since 2015 until 2024. Her running mate was mayor of Montevideo between 2020 and July 2024, and had previously served as Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay from 2015 to 2019 during the mandate of Tabaré Vázquez.
Among its main promises is the reform of the tax system through a reduction in VAT, but also by progressively increasing taxes on high incomes and large assets. “Let those who have more wealth and more income pay more, easing the tax burden on those who have less,” says Orsi and Cosse’s electoral program.
On the other hand, the Frente Amplio is committed to a “national educational pact” that, although it does not go into depth, would seek to advance a new reform of current legislation to meet the demands of educational unions, very critical of the current curriculum. national level.
In addition, it advocates an economic competitiveness plan hand in hand with State intervention with the creation of a National Development Strategy, an initiative with which to plan long-term investments, research and project development.
During his last campaign event on Wednesday, Orsi called for a sensible vote, stressing that “either Uruguay grows with everyone together, or it will not advance”; At the same time, he attacked Lacalle Pou for promising that his mandate “would be the five best years” of the lives of Uruguayans, something that for the progressive leader has not happened.
Meanwhile, Cosse took the opportunity to praise the Broad Front’s background and the successes of his previous governments, where he demonstrated his ability to “build bridges.” “The Frente Amplio knows how to make policies of great agreements because the great agreements are with the entire society, and that is why when it is our turn to be a government we deploy plans for the entire society,” he praised.
THE ‘WHITES’, FACE THE CHALLENGE OF CONTINUING THE LEGACY OF LACALLE POU
For its part, the National Party has had to face the obligation to change candidates after Lacalle Pou’s five years in office, because the Constitution expressly prohibits the direct re-election of presidents.
The ‘whites’ chose Delgado, their current Secretary of the Presidency, as a candidate accompanied by Ripoll, a well-known television figure who was previously linked to the union sector. Delgado’s objective is to retain the Presidency for the National Party, in low hours after the resignation of its former leader, Pablo Iturralde, after learning of alleged pressure on prosecutors regarding a corruption case of a senator.
Delgado and Ripoll have promised that under their mandate taxes will not be increased, pointing out that Uruguay already has a high fiscal pressure, and they have pointed their sights toward reducing spending in the public sector, including spending on salaries.
Regarding Mercosur, they propose following in the footsteps of Lacalle Pou and insisting on the need for modernization of the bloc through the elimination of trade obstacles and taking the necessary measures to reach agreements with the European Union, Japan or Canada, among others.
Delgado took advantage of his last campaign event to, in front of the Montevideo obelisk, convey a message of calm and continuity, although he has not left aside his commitment to continue advancing and promoting new policies. “People not only vote for what we did, people vote for what we are going to do,” Delgado added.
“People in 2019 chose to change, and we changed. They chose to change because there was a Broad Front with a plaster hand that exhausted its model (…) Now we also understood the message, which is that the coalition is the most voted project in Uruguay every time and that we are on the way to national unity,” stated the ‘white’ leader.