By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-25 02:31:21 | Updated at 2024-11-25 05:01:22
2 hours ago
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”.
