A leftist history teacher and a center-right veterinarian will duel for the presidency of Uruguay next month after topping the first round of elections Sunday, projections based on partial results showed.
Yamandu Orsi of iconic ex-president Jose Mujica's Frente Amplio and Alvaro Delgado of the ruling center-right coalition of outgoing president Luis Lacalle Pou will face off in the November 24 election run-off, the projections showed.
Orsi, 57, who was the favorite going into the election, garnered 43.2 percent of the vote, compared to 28 percent for 55-year-old Delgado, the Canal 10 channel reported, citing estimates from Equipos Consultores pollsters.
Another television station, the Canal 12 channel, put Orsi on 44 percent and Delgado on 27 percent, citing the Cifra polling firm.
A second round of voting is held when no candidate wins an outright majority of over 50 percent.
Orsi and Delgado beat out nine other candidates bidding to replace Lacalle Pou, who has a 50 percent approval rating but is barred from seeking a second consecutive five-year term.
Lawyer and TV pundit Andres Ojeda, 40, who compared himself to Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei, placed third on 15.5-16 percent, the projections showed.
The Electoral Court is expected to release final results in the early hours of Monday.
A victory for Orsi in the run-off would see Uruguay swing back to the left after five years of conservative rule.
The Frente Amplio held the presidency for three straight terms until it was voted out in 2020.
Orsi is seen as the understudy to the much-loved Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla who is 89 and battling cancer.
Polls showed crime to be the main concern of voters in the small Latin American country with high per-capita income and low levels of poverty compared to the rest of South America.
Much of the violence is blamed on a surge in drug trafficking.
"It is an election with a lot of uncertainty, very competitive, with two blocs that are very similar," said political analyst Adolfo Garce.
He said it is unclear if either side would win a majority in Congress.
Mujica took part in the election campaign despite his frailty, showed up in a wheelchair to cast his ballot in a poor area of Montevideo.
Surrounded by television cameras the man lionised as "the world's poorest president" during his 2010-2015 rule because of his modest lifestyle, said it may be the last time he votes.
"I hope not, but," he said.
Voters were also choosing a new Congress in Sunday's election and voting in two plebiscites, the most controversial of which would lower the retirement age from 65 to 60 and outlaw private retirement pension plans.
All the main presidential candidates opposed the proposal, warning it would jeopardise the country's finances.
Uruguayans also voted on whether to give police more leeway to raid people's homes in the fight against crime.
Voting is mandatory in Uruguay, which gained a reputation as a liberal mold-breaker under the left between 2005 and 2020.
The country legalized abortion and same-sex marriage and became the world's first nation to allow recreational cannabis use.
It has also blazed a trail in the greening of its economy, with over 90 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources.
