Former rebel leads way into runoff in Uruguay

Oct 26, 2009, 14:57 GMT

Montevideo - Former guerrilla fighter Jose Mujica won the first round of Uruguay's presidential election Sunday but missed the absolute majority that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff, several exit polls showed.

According to projections, the leftist ruling-coalition candidate Mujica is set to clash with right-wing candidate Luis Alberto Lacalle - who already led Uruguay from 1990-95 - in the runoff scheduled for November 29 to elect a successor for President Tabare Vazquez.

'Society demands from us an additional effort, to take part in a second round,' Mujica said late Sunday. 'We have a very optimistic starting point.'

'We are extremely happy about the votes we received, which beat those of the two traditional parties put together and indicates that we are on the way to victory. It's just that victory requires an additional challenge,' said Mujica's running-mate Danilo Astori.

Lacalle, 67, said he would work towards the runoff with 'optimism, enthusiasm and hope.'

Exit polls agreed with opinion polls ahead of the first round, which had shown Mujica likely to fall short of the 50-per-cent threshold needed to avoid a second round. But he looked well- positioned to win in the event of a runoff.

Mujica, 74, is a former member of the leftist guerrilla group Tupamaros and took part in robberies and kidnappings, among other crimes, in the past. He spent 15 years in jail, before holding public positions including that of agriculture minister.

Mujica and Lacalle got the most votes among five presidential candidates, separate exit polls said.

The polling firm Factum said Mujica got 47-49 per cent of the votes to Lacalle's 29-31 per cent, while the Cifra firm showed Mujica with 47 per cent of the vote to Lacalle's 30 per cent.

Both consulting firms agreed on the third-placed candidate, Pedro Bordaberry, with about 17 per cent of the votes. Bordaberry - the son of former Uruguayan dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, currently under house arrest for human rights violations - said he would personally vote for Lacalle in the runoff, without committing his party's support.

According to Uruguay's election rules, a candidate needs to get at least half the votes to win the presidential election without need for a runoff.

The new president would be inaugurated on March 1 with a five-year mandate.

Voters also rejected two referendum proposals, on the removal of amnesty for military and police officers who committed crimes during the 1973-85 military dictatorship and on voting rights for Uruguayans living overseas.

According to exit polls, postal voting for those living abroad was rejected. The measure would have allowed about 600,000 people, many of them in neighbouring Argentina, to vote in absentia.

Human rights activists also admitted the rejection of the proposal to repeal the controversial amnesty, but they vowed to keep up their efforts to see those responsible for human rights violations - including 400 who have been identified so far - brought to justice.

'The perspective of the fight for truth and justice does not end and is not undermined. Our society cannot afford to live under impunity,' said trade union leader Luis Puig.

A similar proposal on the amnesty law had already been rejected in a referendum in 1989.

According to exit polls, no one party obtained an absolute majority of the 130 Congress seats that were also at stake at the polls Sunday.

Voting took place without major incidents, with about 90 per cent of around 2.6 million registered voters casting their ballots.

Polls closed mostly as scheduled at 2130 GMT, although voting was extended at some polling stations because there were still voters inside the premises who were waiting to vote.

Preliminary official results were expected Monday.

Vazquez was elected without a runoff in 2004, to become the first Uruguayan president in 150 years who was not a representative of the conservative politician camp. He has since pursued moderately left- wing reformist policies.

Vazquez remains very popular, but Uruguay's election rules do not allow the immediate re-election of the president.