(Bloomberg) -- Uruguay’s presidential election will go to a runoff next month after none of the candidates reached the 50% plus one threshold needed to win in a first round.
The ruling left-wing Broad Front’s presidential candidate Daniel Martinez will face ex-senator Luis Lacalle Pou in a second round on Nov. 24. Martinez, the 62-year-old former governor of Montevideo, had 36% of the vote against 30% for Lacalle Pou of the center-right National Party with 55% of voting stations reporting, according to the Electoral Court.
Preliminary results suggest the Broad Front will lose its majorities in the Senate and Lower House, according to Ignacio Zuasnabar, director at pollster Equipos Consultores.
“We know the Uruguayan people are an intelligent people who will vote for those who offer concrete proposals and certainties and not a blank check” for austerity policies, Martinez told his supporters in reference to the runoff.
The Broad Front has controlled the presidency and congress since 2005 thanks to a decade-long commodities boom that bankrolled heavy spending on social programs, pensions, and a big expansion in government payrolls. However, growth has slowed to just 1.6% a year since President Tabare Vazquez started his second five-year term in 2015, while his party’s income redistribution policies have led to unsustainable deficits.
Lacalle Pou, the son of a former president, faces the challenge between now and the runoff of making good on his pledge to create a “multi-color” coalition government with other opposition parties ranging from the center-left to the hard right.
The third and fourth place candidates pledged their support for him Sunday evening. Ernesto Talvi of the center-right Colorado Party received 12.9% of the votes and ex-Army general Guido Manini Rios of the right-wing Open Forum party took 11%.
As Uruguay looks like it may turn to the political right, across the river in Argentina, the left is returning to power after Alberto Fernandez defeated incumbent Mauricio Macri 48% to 40% on Sunday evening amid a deepening economic crisis.
The winner of the Nov. 24 runoff will start his five-year term on March 1, 2020.
