The re-election of Uruguay's Frente Amplio (FA — Broad Front) government, and the defeat of the right-wing National Party candidate and former neoliberal president Luis Alberto Lacalle, came one step closer on October 25.
The streets have been lined with red, white and blue, the colours of the FA, signalling the strong support for the FA among the population.
The FA was formed in 1971 as a coalition of leftist groups. It also contains factions that have broken away from the traditional parties of the elite, the National Party (PN) and Colorado Party (PC).
The FA candidate, former guerrilla fighter Jose "Pepe" Mujica, won the first round of elections on October 25 with 47.5% of the vote. His nearest competitor, Lacalle, won 28.5%.
However, he did not gain more than 50% needed to win the absolute majority under the Uruguayan electoral system. A second round of elections will be held on November 29 and will determine who replaces the current FA president, Tabare Vasquez, when he steps down in March 2010.
The run-off elections were a measure created by the traditional parties once they began to see they were losing the bipartisanship that had characterised Uruguayan political history. The triumph of the FA led by Vasquez in 2004 broke the domination of the two parties.
On the day of the vote, polls stayed open for an extra hour and more than 90% of eligible voters took part in the elections. The need for a second round of elections was conceded by all parties shortly after the polls closed. After Mujica and Lacalle, PC candidate Pedro Bordaberry came third with 16.6%. Bordaberry is the son of former military dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry.
The FA also won a majority in both houses of parliament.
Mujica will face Lacalle in the second round, for which the PN is appealing to the PC for support.
Over the past five years, the Vasquez-led FA government increased funding for social services and the construction of public housing. Under the FA government, there was a 15% drop of in poverty levels and a decline in unemployment from 17% to a record low of 7.2%.
However, the overall policies of the Vasquez government, based on a broad coalition, more closely resembled those of Brazilian President Lula da Silva than the revolutionary governments in Venezuela or Bolivia.
There is no talk of a future FA government joining the anti-imperialist political and trading bloc established by Venezuela and Cuba, the Boliviarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA).
Mujica is a senator and served as agricultural minister in the FA government until 2008. He is also an ex-member of the National Liberation Movement — the Tupamaros. He was a political prisoner for almost 15 years during the brutal military dictatorship and endured dreadful torture.
Mujica has said that the nation of 3.4 million people can become something like Finland, providing for "the people who have the least" under a diversified economy that creates well-paid jobs.
Mujica was a key leader of the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP), the main faction in the FA, but recently quit as part of his campaign.
The MPP, which accepted his resignation, said "this step is a consequence of his ideals, ethics and unitary spirit, ideas that are also a part of this organisation".
As well as presidential and congressional elections, two referendums were also held on October 25. One was to revoke an amnesty afforded to military and government officials for human rights abuses under the 1973-85 dictatorship and another to enable postal votes from expatriate Uruguayans.
These referendums also failed to win majorities, gaining a little over 40% and 30%, respectively.
In the October 25 polls for president and Congress, the FA achieved more votes than the traditional parties combined, and almost 20% above its nearest rival, the PN, which campaigned on a law and order platform and for more neoliberal policies.