Front of the candidate of the Frente Amplio, pupil of José “Pepe” Mujica, was reaffirmed in practically all the polls of this electoral campaign
MAYARA PAIXÃO – BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FOLHAPRESS) – Less than two weeks before the second round of elections in Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, the candidate of the left-wing coalition Frente Amplio, and Álvaro Delgado, of the ruling National Party, are in a technical tie, points out research by the respected consultancy Opción.
The survey was the first published since Uruguayans went to the polls in the first round, on the 27th. Although widely celebrated by front-runners in public, it demands caution: there is a highly competitive scenario, as Opción itself describes.
Former governor of Canelones, on the outskirts of the capital Montevideo, Orsi appears numerically ahead in the survey carried out by telephone with 1,150 people between the 4th and 9th of this month.
The history professor has 48.5% of voting intentions, compared to 45.1% for Delgado, former secretary of the Presidency of the current leader, Luis Lacalle Pou. Considering the margin of error of 2.3 points, they are tied. The second round takes place on the 24th.
The lead of the Frente Amplio candidate, a protégé of José “Pepe” Mujica, was reaffirmed in practically all the polls of this electoral campaign. In the last few, however, there was less space between those who say they prefer him and those who say the same about Álvaro Delgado.
It is a deception for the government candidate, who had as one of his main tasks to retain supporters of parties such as Colorado, Independente and Cabildo Aberto. Delgado is from the National Party, which historically acts in a bloc with these other acronyms in Congress, forming the so-called Republican Coalition (or multicolor).
Still, there is a small portion of Republican alliance voters who say they will support the Broad Front. The same Opción survey shows that 12% of these voters will go with the left, while the majority, 82%, will support Delgado.
In the first round, which passed without surprises in the small South American country, Yamandú Orsi accumulated 43.94% of voter preference, while Álvaro Delgado, 26.77%. On the same day, the government candidate performed a great event in Montevideo alongside the leaders of other parties who were seeking the Presidency at that time, but later quickly joined in their support for the second round.
If the left manages to overcome this competitive scenario, next March – when the presidential inauguration takes place – will mark the return of the Broad Front to power after a five-year window of interruption with Lacalle Pou, 51, of the center-left. Under the Constitution, he could not seek consecutive re-election.
The alliance founded in 1971, shortly before the military dictatorship began, from which the country would only be freed in 1985, governed for 15 uninterrupted years with Tabaré Vazquez (2005-2010; 2015-2020) and Pepe Mujica (2010-2015). Lacalle Pou broke this dominance when he was elected in 2019, but it remains to be seen whether Delgado managed to attract the political capital of the president, who now enjoys a celebrated 50% approval rating.
The candidates hoped that the first round would result in a new configuration for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate that would favor a candidate with a clear majority so that they could ask the population to vote in favor of greater governability. That wasn’t what happened.
The Broad Front achieved a very narrow majority in the Senate (16 out of 30 seats). In the Chamber, no one had a majority. The Front will have 48 of the 99 seats in the House. The Republican Coalition will have 49 seats. Two deputies will be part of the anti-system Sovereign Identity party. Its leader, Gustavo Salle, will be the key player for anyone who wants to obtain a majority in votes. He promised to cancel the vote in the second round. Anti-vaccines, says that all politicians are corrupt.
