Uruguay Elections Preview
While you might be distracted by the presidential contest in the US, Uruguayans are headed to the polls in October
Elections in Uruguay are a month away. On October 27, 2024, Uruguayans will head to the polls to vote for a new president, all thirty members of its Senate, and all 99 members of its Chamber of Representatives. If no presidential candidate wins a 50% majority in the first round of voting, a run-off will take place on November 24. The contest has largely flown under the international radar. Especially in the US, with its own contentious election, it’s easy to understand why Uruguay’s ballot showdown has not produced front page news. This last week, I was asked by the Latin American Advisor to provide comments on the forthcoming election and answer the following set of questions:
Uruguayans will go to the polls on Oct. 27 to select the country’s next president and vice president, as well as members of the country’s legislature. Polls show that opposition candidate Yamandú Orsi, a former mayor of Canelones and a member of the leftist Broad Front coalition, is in the lead, followed by Álvaro Delgado, of the center-right National Party. Running in third place is media personality Andrés Ojeda, of the Colorado Party. What are the main issues that are important to Uruguayans in the upcoming elections? What plans are the leading candidates setting forth to address these issues? What events in the upcoming weeks might have the most impact on the election’s results?
I wrote back the following:
So far, the Uruguayan election has gone under the international radar. However, in Uruguay, issues such as security and drug trafficking, poverty and unemployment, and the country’s commitment to social security are animating debates. The Frente Amplio’s Orsi has been defining his campaign platform as a “humanist project” that “aims to fight inequality” and proposals to fight child poverty have been a centerpiece of his campaign. Yet, he also proposes measures to fight organized crime such as developing a Comprehensive System to Fight Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking and creating a Special Task Force for highly dedicated criminal investigation. Nacional’s Delgado has proposed similar task force ideas to combat organized crime modeled on Italy, but his economic programs rests on reducing public employees (he says by 15,000) while creating new job (at least 60,000) through seeking trade liberalization with China and others. Yet, two referendums will be voted on simultaneously and are also a huge part of the political discussion. One has been spearheaded by the national umbrella trade union, the PIT-CNT, and deals with social security reforms including the elimination of private pension fund administrators, lowering the retirement age to 60 (after it was raised to 65 last year), and aligning minimum pensions with the national minimum wage. Delgado strongly opposes it. The other plebiscite would allow nighttime police raids. This appears to be a popular idea to combat drug trafficking but remains a controversial issue even forty years after the conclusion of the country’s dictatorship.
(Yamandú Orsi By Marcelo Cúneo - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42159730)
To see the other responses by Michael Shifter, senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue and Ignacio Bartesaghi, director of the International Business Institute at the Universidad Católica del Uruguay, please see the whole issue at: https://www.thedialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/LAA240923.pdf
If you love the work, here is the website which The Dialogue publishes every week day: https://www.thedialogue.org/latin-america-advisor/
I’d also love to highlight a few other sources for those interested in reading more on the election:
A recording by the Wilson Center on the election from September 19.
AS/COA’s poll tracker
Diplomatic Courier’s piece on what it calls the ‘forgotten election’
Bloomberg’s article on the Frente Amplio’s platform
(Álvaro Delgado by By Desayunos Informales -CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150434188)
I’ll be back in October/November for more updates!