Montevideo (AFP) – Uruguayans voted Sunday to elect a successor to folksy iconoclast President Jose Mujica, whose leftist coalition is fighting off youthful challengers from the country’s more conservative traditional parties.
Mujica is looking to hand power back to his predecessor, cancer doctor Tabare Vazquez of the Broad Front (FA), who polls indicate is likely to win the first round but not by enough to avoid a runoff with either Luis Lacalle Pou of the National Party or Pedro Bordaberry, the son of a former dictator running on the Colorado ticket.
Surrounded by supporters, Mujica — famous for legalizing marijuana sales, living in a run-down house and donating most of his salary to charity — was one of the first to vote in his Cerro neighborhood west of the capital Montevideo.
He arrived in his old Volkswagen Beetle, accompanied by his wife, Senator Lucia Topolansky.
Elections “are not war, they are an important step, but the country will come out ahead,” he told reporters.
Vazquez, 74, is trying to reprise his 2004 election victory, which ended 174 years of dominance by the South American country’s two traditional parties, the Colorados (Reds) and Blancos (Whites, now officially called the National Party).
“We are hoping for the best, but the people will speak,” he said on arriving to cast his ballot.
- Left legalized abortion, marijuana -
After 10 years in power, the leftist Broad Front (FA) has lost some of its shine, and is fending off vigorous challenges from the Blancos and Colorados, which are both running from the center-right.
Vazquez ran as the candidate of change when he won office in 2004, cruising to victory in a single round as voters punished the two traditional parties for the region’s 2002 economic crisis.
He left office with a 60-percent approval rating after getting the economy back on track, passing tough anti-smoking legislation and launching a program to give every public school student a laptop.
When Mujica took office, he took the progressive reform agenda up a notch, legalizing abortion and marijuana.
The marijuana law created a legal, regulated market, allowing users to grow the drug at home, buy it at the pharmacy or source it from “cannabis clubs” — the first legislation of its kind in the world.
But though the FA has presided over 10 years of economic growth — 4.4 percent last year — and falling poverty, polls indicate it has lost about five percent of its voters.
The last polls before the elections, released Wednesday, showed Vazquez positioned to win between 43 and 46 percent of the vote.
The FA is also at risk of losing its decade-long legislative majority.
- Tight run-off predicted -
If the polls prove accurate, Vazquez would face a November 30 run-off against dynamic young newcomer Lacalle Pou, who had about 30 percent support going into Sunday’s voting.
The son of a former president, Lacalle Pou, 41, shot up in the polls after unexpectedly winning the National Party primary in June, running on a platform of “positivity” and “fresh air.”
Bordaberry, 54, whose father was Uruguay’s dictator from 1973 to 1976, trailed in pre-vote polls with 15 to 18 percent.
Analysts predict that if the vote goes to a run-off, the Blancos and Colorados will put aside their historic rivalry and join forces, setting up a tightly contested race.
From the early hours Sunday, candidates took to social media, which are not covered by a ban on election day propaganda, to bombard their supporters with pleas to vote.
Thousands of Uruguayans traveled by air, land and sea from neighboring Argentina, Paraguay and even far-away Venezuela to cast their ballots, with the Broad Front making intensive efforts to bring home voters from abroad to bolster its ranks.
Besides the general election, Uruguayans will vote in a referendum on whether to lower the age at which a person can be tried for serious crimes, from 18 to 16. An absolute majority is needed to approve the change.
A total of 2.6 million Uruguayans are eligible to vote in the mandatory elections, and will turn out across nearly 6,950 polling stations.
Polls close at 8:30 pm (2230 GMT).
Uruguay votes for Mujica successor
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