URUGUAY: Orsi wins presidential election

Left-wing politician Yamandu Orsi was elected president of Uruguay, official results showed on Sunday, in a rebuke by voters of five years of conservative rule. Uruguayans went to the polls for the second round of voting in what became a tight race between Orsi, of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) alliance, and Alvaro Delgado of […]

URUGUAY: Orsi wins presidential election
URUGUAY: Orsi wins presidential election

Left-wing politician Yamandu Orsi was elected president of Uruguay, official results showed on Sunday, in a rebuke by voters of five years of conservative rule.

Uruguayans went to the polls for the second round of voting in what became a tight race between Orsi, of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) alliance, and Alvaro Delgado of the National Party, a member of outgoing President Luis Lacalle Pou’s centre-right Republican Coalition.

Orsi promised in a victory speech on Sunday evening to be a president “who calls again and again for national dialogue to find the best solutions.”

Delgado meanwhile conceded defeat, saying he was sending “a big hug and a greeting to Yamandu Orsi.”

Though the election will shift the balance of power in Uruguay, analysts did not foresee a massive change in the country’s economic direction, with Orsi having previously promised “change that will not be radical.”