San Francisco Frontiers - Uruguayans vote in tight race for president

Former history teacher Yamandu Orsi of the leftist Frente Amplio (Broad Front) is going head-to-head with ex-veterinarian Alvaro Delgado of the National Party, a member of outgoing President Luis Lacalle Pou's center-right Republican Coalition.

"As long as things improve here in Uruguay and it stays afloat, that's enough for me," said one voter, 34-year-old meat industry worker Nicolas Clavijo.

Orsi, 57, is seen as the understudy of 89-year-old Mujica, a former guerrilla lionized as "the world's poorest president" during his 2010-2015 rule because of his modest lifestyle.

Orsi had garnered 43.9 percent of the October 27 first-round vote -- short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff but ahead of the 26.7 percent of ballots cast for Delgado, 55.

The pair came out on top of a crowded field of 11 candidates seeking to replace Lacalle Pou, who has a high approval rating but is barred constitutionally from seeking a second consecutive term.

Polls point to a tight race Sunday, with Orsi only marginally ahead in stated voter intention in South America's second-smallest country.

Polls close in Uruguay at 7:30 pm (2230 GMT).

- 'A very different world' -

Mujica, who is battling cancer and had to use a cane to walk into his polling station to vote, said Sunday: "Personally, I have nothing more to look forward to. My closest future is the cemetery, for reasons of age.

"But I am interested in the fate of you, the young people who, when they are my age, will live in a very different world."

A smiling Orsi cast his ballot Sunday in the rural Canelones region, to applause from supporters.

Delgado shook hands with polling station officials as he cast his vote in Montevideo.

"If I win, tomorrow I plan to invite candidate Orsi to come have some mate," Delgado said, referring to a traditional herbal infusion Uruguayans sip frequently.

Other parties within the Republican Coalition have thrown their support behind Delgado since the first round, boosting his numbers.

- Insecurity a worry -

A victory for Orsi would see Uruguay swing left again after five years of center-right rule in the country of 3.4 million inhabitants.

The Frente Amplio coalition broke a decades-long conservative stranglehold with an election victory in 2005, and held the presidency for three straight terms.

It was voted out in 2020 on the back of concerns about rising crime blamed on high taxes and a surge in cocaine trafficking through the port of Montevideo.

Polling numbers show perceived insecurity remains Uruguayans' top concern five years later.

A 72-year-old retiree who voted, Juan Antonio Stivan, said he just wanted the next government to guarantee "safety -- to be able to go out in the street with peace of mind, as an old person, as a young person, as a child."

Another voter, Aldo Soroara, a 60-year-old winegrower, said he expected whoever is elected as president to do "the best he can for the people," adding: "You can't ask for much more in these difficult times."

Voting is compulsory in Uruguay, one of Latin America's most stable democracies, with comparatively high per-capita income and low poverty levels.

During the heyday of leftist rule, Uruguay legalized abortion and same-sex marriage, became the first Latin American country to ban smoking in public places and the world's first nation, in 2013, to allow recreational cannabis use.

A.Smith--SFF