General elections were held in Uruguay on Sunday, 27 October 2019 to elect the President and General Assembly. As no presidential candidate received a majority in the first round of voting, a runoff election took place on 24 November. In the 2014 elections, the left-wing Broad Front had won a third consecutive election with absolute majorities in both houses of the General Assembly. The Broad Front's term in office еarned support through the creation of a large welfare system, but at the same time was undermined by an increasing budget deficit, along with rising unemployment and a spike in violence. The election campaign focused primarily around the issue of crime, with each party proposing different solutions. A constitutional referendum was held alongside the elections on amendments proposed by opposition Senator Jorge Larrañaga, which proposed the introduction of a National Guard and tougher security measures. As incumbent president Tabaré Vázquez was unable to seek re-election due to constitutional term limits, the Broad Front nominated former Montevideo mayor Daniel Martínez as its presidential candidate. The National Party nominated its 2014 candidate Luis Lacalle Pou, the Colorado Party nominated the economistErnesto Talvi and the new Open Cabildo party, nominated former commander-in-chief of the Uruguayan Army, Guido Manini Ríos. Heading into the elections, most opinion polls predicted a run-off between Martínez and Lacalle Pou, along with the loss of the Broad Front's congressional majority and the growth of Open Cabildo. In the first round of voting, the Broad Front saw its worst results since the 1999 elections, but Martínez still received the most votes and qualified for the runoff along with Lacalle Pou, who subsequently received support from most of the eliminated opposition parties. In the runoff, Lacalle Pou defeated Martínez by just over 37,000 votes in a tight race, with the final result only declared after the counting of absentee ballots. The elections marked the first loss for the Broad Front in a presidential election since 1999, with Lacalle Pou becoming the first National Party president since his father, Luis Alberto Lacalle de Herrera, who held office from 1990 to 1995.
Background
The 2014 elections had resulted in a third consecutive victory for the Broad Front, along with an absolute majority in the General Assembly. Tabaré Vázquez, the winner of the presidential election, was ineligible to run again due to constitutional term limits. As a result, the governing Broad Front had to nominate a new candidate. The economy had seen continued growth since 2003, allowing the government to invest heavily in social programs, pensions and health care. However, improved poverty and inequality ratios came at the cost of a budget deficit that reached 4.8 percent of GDP by the end of August 2019. According to political analysts, the Broad Front was predicted to lose its congressional majority, which combined with an increase in the number of parties expected to win seats in Congress, would make coalition negotiations difficult.
On 25 November, preliminary results in the runoff election showed Lacalle Pou with a majority by 28,666 votes over Martínez, which delayed the announcement of a winner as 35,229 absentee vote needed to be counted. Martínez later conceded defeat on 28 November. On 30 November, final votes counts confirmed Lacalle Pou as the winner with 48.8% of the total votes cast over Martínez with 47.3%.
