Former leftist guerrilla Jose Mujica wins Uruguayan presidency

Nov 30, 2009, 13:03 GMT

Montevideo - Jose Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla who spent 15 years in prison, has won a presidential run-off in Uruguay, results showed Monday.

With nearly all votes counted, results showed Mujica won 53.2 per cent of the vote against 42.7 per cent for his second-round opponent, former president Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-95), in the run-off held Sunday.

The conservative Lacalle conceded defeat, saying: 'Mujica is the president of all Uruguayans. We have to accept it.'

The 74-year-old Mujica, a senator and nominee of the ruling coalition Frente Amplio (Broad Front) who had been heavily favoured to win, celebrated at a post-election rally.

'You know something, people? It is you who should be on the stage, with us clapping for you,' he told thousands of supporters gathered despite bad weather outside the Broad Front's election-day headquarters in Montevideo.

In victory, Mujica called for reconciliation.

The Broad Front already obtained Congressional majority in the legislative elections on October 25, when Mujica won the first round of the presidential election with 48 per cent to Lacalle's 29 per cent as runner up.

Polling stations opened at 1000 GMT and closed 11-and-a-half hours later. There were no major incidents during the voting, though some delays were reported. Helicopters were needed to take ballot boxes to some areas where flooding from heavy rain in recent weeks had cut off roads.

The Broad Front first took power in 2005, and President Tabare Vazquez, whose five-year term is expiring, led a successful reformist government that has retained the approval of about 60 per cent of the population, according to opinion surveys. He was banned from running because Uruguayan law forbids consecutive presidential terms.

Mujica's inauguration is scheduled for March 1.