MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — A onetime mayor and history teacher defeated the candidate of the conservative coalition that has governed Uruguay for the past five years to win his country’s presidency on Sunday.
Even as ballots in the closely contested runoff election were still being counted, Álvaro Delgado, the current president’s chief of staff, conceded defeat to his challenger, Yamandú Orsi.
“With sadness, but without guilt, we can congratulate the winner,” Mr. Delgado said.
Mr. Orsi’s center-left party, the Broad Front, released a statement saying that “joy will return” and announcing him as the winner.
Election officials said that with just over half the ballots counted, Mr. Orsi had secured 784,523 votes, and Mr. Delgado 771,434.
Mr. Delgado’s concession signaled an end to the short stint of the right-leaning government in Uruguay that in 2020, when President Luis Lacalle Pou took office, ended 15 years of government by the Broad Front. During that period, the Broad Front oversaw the legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage and the sale of marijuana.
“I called Yamandú Orsi to congratulate him as president-elect of our country,” Mr. Lacalle Pou said in a statement, adding that he would “put myself at his service and begin the transition as soon as I deem it appropriate.”
The vote on Sunday was the second round of the presidential election, and it followed low-key campaigns that were seen as emblematic of the country’s strong democracy. Voting in Uruguay is compulsory, with over 2.7 million citizens eligible, and as polls closed on Sunday evening, voter turnout stood at 89.4 percent, around the same as in the first round last month.
Mr. Orsi is regarded as a moderate. He has said he plans no major changes and agrees with his opponent on key issues like combating childhood poverty and cracking down on organized crime.
His promise to lead a “new left” in Uruguay notwithstanding, Mr. Orsi’s platform resembles the mix of market-friendly policies and welfare programs that characterized the Broad Front’s time in power.
He has proposed tax incentives to lure investment, and social security reforms that would lower the retirement age but fall short of a radical overhaul sought by Uruguay’s unions that failed to pass in October, with Uruguayans rejecting generous pensions in favor of fiscal constraint.
“He’s my candidate, not only for my sake but also for my children’s,” Yeny Varone, a nurse at a polling station, said of Mr. Orsi. “In the future, they’ll have better working conditions, health and salaries.”
Mr. Delgado, 55, a rural veterinarian with a long career in the National Party, served most recently as secretary of the presidency for Mr. Lacalle Pou and campaigned under the slogan “re-elect a good government.”
Both candidates pledged full cooperation with each other if elected.
“My idea is to form a government of national unity,” Mr. Delgado told reporters after casting his vote in the capital’s upscale Pocitos neighborhood. He said that if he won, he and Mr. Orsi would chat on Monday over some yerba mate, the traditional herbal drink beloved by Uruguayans.
As Mr. Orsi voted in Canelones, the sprawling town of beaches and cattle ranches just north of Montevideo where he served as mayor for a decade, he described the election as “an incredible experience.”
“The essence of politics is agreements,” he said. “You never end up completely satisfied.”
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