Center-left opposition leader Yamandu Orsi and Alvaro Delgado of the ruling center-right coalition will face off in a second round for the Uruguayan presidency on Nov. 24.
Orsi, 57, and Delgado, 55, took a lead over nine rivals in the first round of voting on Sunday, but neither of them had enough votes to declare an outright victory.
With 74% of the votes counted by the country's electoral body, Orsi's Frente Amplio coalition that governed Uruguay for three consecutive terms between 2005 and 2020 took 44% of the vote, followed by Delgado's National Party with 27%.
The next closest candidate, who managed to garner 16% of the vote, was 40-year-old lawyer Andres Ojeda, the candidate from the Colorado Party, which is also part of the government coalition. Ojeda gained momentum with his unconventional way of doing politics, for which he is compared to Argentine President Javier Milei.
In his first speech after the polls closed, Orsi, a history teacher and former aide to ex-President Jose "Pepe" Mujica, acknowledged that there would be a runoff and asked his supporters to make a "last effort."
"We are going through these 27 days in this final effort with more desire than ever," he said.
"It is a moment of profound joy. It is time for change, time for hope. Today, the Uruguayan people won," he added.
Delgado celebrated that the government coalition was the most voted political project in the country.
"We have an enormous responsibility to continue on this path. With adjustments, with modifications, with doing things that are better than the same, but to give Uruguay a direction that allowed us to generate prosperity and overcome together and come out of the most difficult moments," said the veterinarian.
President Luis Lacalle Pou of the National Party, who leads the governing coalition, has a 50% approval rating, but the Constitution prevents him from serving another consecutive term.
More than 2.7 million Uruguayans were eligible to vote on a new president and renew the bicameral parliament.
Neither of the two referendums that were also voted on on Sunday, including one to reform the social security system, obtained the necessary votes to be approved.
