URUGUAY: Leading opposition candidate expected to secure runoff

Record ID: 351676

  • Title: URUGUAY: Leading opposition candidate expected to secure runoff
  • Date: 23rd October 2014
  • Summary: MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTORAL LISTS
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Uruguay
  • Country: Uruguay
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAF2BZPDVQQB1LVHAWGB8F7ZTL0
  • Story Text: As Uruguayans prepare to cast their ballots ahead of the Sunday (October 26) election, all eyes are on opposition candidate Luis Lacalle Pou, leader of the centre-right National Party, and his running-mate, 2004 presidential candidate, Jorge Larrangana.
    Lacalle Pou's popularity has surged in recent months and is expected to threaten Jose Mujica's ruling Broad Front party, leading to a neck and neck runoff against Broad Front candidate and one-time president, Tabare Vazquez in late November.
    The son of former conservative president Luis Alberto Lacalle, Lacalle Pou has largely been able to shake off his 'daddy's boy' image as demonstrated by a vertiginous climb in the polls which show Pou trailing the Vazquez.
    But with both men projected to fall short of the absolute majority needed for a first-round victory, they will probably go to a late November runoff, where polls show them running neck and neck.
    The 41-year old lawyer has managed to win over disgruntled Uruguayans on promises such as clamping down on crime, cutting taxes and education reform.
    "And, we said that the Minister of Finance is important, but the Minister of the Future, the Minister of a bunch of kids, is the Minister of Education, the backbone of our country's future. It is the only way to generate real freedom, real independence without depending on who governs, the ideology, from what party, and of what majority. Education is knowledge, the critical capacity to engage with this crazy world that changes so rapidly. It's something that someone can't be taken away from an Uruguayan, and for this reason we have to grant it, to be more free," said Lacalle Pou, a married father of three.
    The avid surfer who started a political career in the Chamber of Deputies at just 26-years old, aims to give a fresh face to Uruguayan conservatism and put an end to 10 years of leftist Broad Front rule.
    "When you run into a neighbor from the Broad Front you understand what he feels, what he believes, what he is going to defend. We respect what he thinks because we ask for the same thing. And you try to tell him because everyone in some way knows someone from another party at work, in the family, a friend, and a political party can't divide us. Do this, but convince him that it must be like this for a better Uruguay, better still, tell him: 'I wish you luck but a bit more for myself, thank you very much,'" said Lacalle Pou during a campaign act in Montevideo earlier this month.
    Lacalle Pou has also said that he would try to repeal much of the country's ground-breaking marijuana law ushered in by President Mujica which permits the commercial production and sale of the drug. He also slammed Mujica - who is constitutionally barred from running for a second term - for his controversial proposal to grant asylum to six Guantanamo Bay detainees.
    While the small South American country has made international headlines in recent years for socially progressive legislation including the decriminalization of abortion and legalizing same-sex marriage under the Broad Front coalition's majority rule, it looks like the young Lacalle Pou is poised to rattle the nation's political scene with a possible shift to the right.
    With both Lacalle Pou and Vazquez projected to fall short of the absolute majority needed for a first-round victory on Sunday (October 26), many expect the real electoral drama to be played out during a tight November 30th runoff.
    If Lacalle Pou does make it to a runoff scenario as predicted, support from Pedro Bordaberry, the son of a former Uruguayan dictator, and his right-wing Colorado party will be key in securing his presidency.
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