On Sunday, October 27, 2024, Uruguayans headed to the polls to vote for Parliament, two high stakes referendums, and a new president (Uruguay does not allow consecutive terms so the popular current president, Luis Lacalle Pou was not on the ballot). Here is a breakdown of the results thus far.
Parliament:
In the Senate, the Frente Amplio’s left-wing coalition won a slight majority with 16 out of 30 seats. This Senate will also see nine women inaugurated, which is one more than currently serves. Seven of the 16 Frente Amplio seats will be occupied by women. Two of the nine seats won by the Partido Nacional will be women. The Colorado Party won five seats but all of them will be occupied by women.
There is no majority in the lower house. The breakdown from each party is: 48 from the Frente Amplio; 29 from the Partido Nacional, 17 from the Partido Colorado, 2 from Cabildo Abierto, 2 from Identidad Soberana, and 1 from the Partido Independiente. 28 of the 99 diputados will be women, which represents an increase in 9 seats from the 2019-2024 period where there was only 19.
Referendums:
Two referendums were also on the ballot but they were both rejected.
The first was to allow for night raids. Higher crime has increasingly become an issue in the small country. The current homicide rate is 11.2 homicides per 100,000 people, which is far above its neighbors in Chile and Argentina which are 6.74 and 4.31 respectively. In the leadup to the elections, many polls thought the measure would pass but support for it waned in the month leading up to election and it was ultimately rejected by voters. It only garnered 39.35% of support in the final vote.
The other would have overhauled social security through measures such as lowering the retirement age from 65 to 60 (it had been raised in ) and eliminating private pension to move towards all public models. It was led by the strong union, the PIT-CNT but concerns arose from all three major parties about plunging the country into further deficit, and the measure was rejected as well. Only 38.81% of the population voted for the measure.
President:
This race is headed to run-off on November 24.
The leading candidate was the Frente Amplio’s Yamandu Orsi who received 43.9% of the votes (approximately 1.1 million). Álvaro Delgado, the Blanco candidate, came in second with 26.8% (approximately 644,100 votes). However, he goes into the run-off with a higher chance of winning. In 2019’s run-off, all the other parties that ran candidates united for the run-off against the Frente Amplio, which brought Lacalle Pou to power. Delgado, a former congressman, hails from the same party as Lacalle Pou and once served as a senior aid to him. Many onlookers expect the same right-wing coalition to form in the run-off. Already, Andres Ojeda, who drew 16% (approximately 200,700 votes) as a candidate for the Colorado Party, pledged to back Delgado.
The Frente Amplio is not giving up hope though. In the week since the election, Orsi has sought to try to bring in voters from other parties by moderating and promising that he will not implement any radical change. In addition, in Uruguay where voting in mandatory, a large number of blank ballots were cast and Orsi hopes that means he might be able to bring in some of those weary voters as well.
source: El Observador
Conclusions:
The four weeks between the first round and run-off in Uruguay will be busy during this final stretch of campaigning, but it is one marked by civility as compared to neighboring countries. Many of the candidates speeches after results on Sunday noted the strength of Uruguayan democracy and, as Orsi said, “the healthy and respectful electoral competition.” This tradition will hopefully continue in late November.