With 94.4% of the votes counted, the Frente Amplio candidate obtained 49.66% of the votes while the official candidate Álvaro Delgado obtained 46.06%,
Leftist Yamandú Orsi, whose political ambitions were galvanized by his experience growing up under a dictatorship, became Uruguay's president-elect on Sunday, marking the return of the Frente Amplio to power after five years.
Orsi, a 57-year-old former history teacher and local mayor, won the second round of voting on Sunday against Álvaro Delgado, a candidate for the ruling center-right National Party.
Orsi has insisted during the campaign that he does not plan a sharp political change in the traditionally moderate nation of 3.5 million people. He has said he wants to usher in “a modern left” to tackle homelessness, poverty and crime, a key concern of voters.
Murder rates in Uruguay have risen sharply in recent years, driven by changing cocaine smuggling routes. The poverty rate is one of the lowest in the region and has returned to pre-COVID levels this year, but non-governmental organizations say it continues to disproportionately affect children.
"The destiny and future of this country has to change," Orsi told Reuters in an interview in Montevideo in October, saying the Frente Amplio was the force to drive that change by striking a different balance between social welfare and economic growth.
He has the backing of former President José "Pepe" Mujica and moderate groups who like his pro-business tone. Unlike many other countries in the region, Uruguay has rarely had divisive politics.
"I am a leftist, of course," Orsi said. "But in Uruguay the left has had many facets," he added.
As mayor of Canelones, the country’s second-largest region, he eased local bureaucracy to attract international firms such as Google, with some success. He has said he plans to avoid tax increases despite the growing deficit and instead focus on spurring faster growth.
Orsi's Frente Amplio won a majority in the Senate in October, which he says puts him in a better position to lead the government.
FOLKLORE STYLE
Some voters polled by Reuters said they were concerned that Orsi was indecisive and "lacking ideas." Others, however, liked that he was moderate and "open to dialogue," while some politicians who support him said he represented a "generational change" on the left.
"He has had very important practical experience with the government," Mujica, now 89, told Reuters in an interview earlier this year, defending Orsi as a political bridge-builder. "He has a good disposition to bear differences ... for that reason and surely he will build a team."
Orsi employs a casual, country style that is partly reminiscent of Mujica, who was known for his humble lifestyle that included driving an old VW Beetle to work during his presidency from 2010 to 2015.
Orsi is often seen carrying the traditional mate, walking his dog Ramón and dressed casually. He has said that, like Mujica, he will not live in the presidential residence.
The centre-left candidate said he plans to increase funding for the prison system and strengthen cooperation with Europe to combat drug trafficking.
Orsi says politics was never part of his family life, having grown up in a rural area of Canelones where his parents owned a small grocery store. But after the 1984 elections that led to the restoration of democracy, he found himself absorbed in that world.
"Politics was a dirty word (...) because we were in a dictatorship," he said, referring to Uruguay's civil-military government from 1973 to 1985, one of several dictatorships during that period in South America. Orsi was 17 when they went to the polls again.
"So that breath of fresh air filled you and, well, it remained there as a permanent task," he said.
