The candidate of the ruling coalition in Uruguay Alvaro Delgado conceded the victory of his centre-left rival Yamandu Orsi in the second round of the country's presidential election, after the first official results showed the left-wing candidate most likely to win, handed Reuters, quoted by BTA.
„It is one thing to lose the election and another to be defeated. "We are not defeated," Delgado said to his supporters. “Today we can congratulate the one who won, the one who was preferred, and do it sincerely”, he added.
Uruguay's conservative President Luis Lacalle Pou said he called the left-wing candidate to congratulate him as the South American country's president-elect and to offer help in organizing the transition process.
Lacalle Pou said this in his publication in “Ex“, after exit polls predicted that Orsi would defeat the candidate of the ruling coalition, but before the official results were published.
According to the official results, the opposition candidate won the elections with 49.77% of the votes against 45.94% for the governing candidate, with a total of 97% of the votes cast.
„The horizon is becoming clearer”, Orsi said, addressing thousands of his supporters in Montevideo who had gathered to await the announcement of the results “The country of freedom, equality and also fraternity has triumphed again”. he added.
Unlike the significant divisions between the right and the left in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, the political scene in Uruguay is relatively free of tension, with considerable overlap in the programs of conservative and liberal coalitions, notes Reuters.