URUGUAY: Uruguay, one of Latin America's most stable democracies and oldest US allies, has elected its first left-wing president following a landslide victory for the Broad Front coalition in Sunday's general elections writes Séamus Mirodan in Buenos Aires.
Mr Tabare Vásquez, the former mayor of the capital city Montevideo, won by more than 50 per cent, avoiding a second round run-off and confirming a return to left-wing politics across the region.
Mr Vasquez declared himself the winner as the first exit polls were released on Sunday night and his opponents conceded defeat. The new president told supporters: "We will begin to work in the morning on the political transition because there is no time to lose."
A socialist and doctor by profession, Mr Vasquez has managed to draw traditionally conservative voters away from the centre-right Colorado Party which has dominated Uruguayan politics for the last 160 years.
Uruguay's first president founded the Colorados and the current incumbent president is a member, as was his father and his grandfather, both of whom also served as presidents. However, yesterday, the unthinkable happened as the party grasped only 10 per cent of the vote.
Left-leaning leaders have already taken the helm in four other countries in the southern cone of the continent, and Uruguay, a banking hub with three million people and many more cattle, was one of the region's last conservative bastions.
Uruguayans, like their Argentine neighbours, once prided themselves on having one of the highest standards of living in the region, but an economic crash in 2002 pushed a third of the population beneath the poverty line. These voters are now seeking honesty, not ideology, from candidates and support a return to inward rather than outward-looking government.
As Uruguayan Mr Alejandro Bica, explained: "The Colorados are now reaping the fruits of their terrible presidencies. The people are tired of a state which keeps getting worse and is only concerned with the interests of the dominant class.
"The proposals of the Broad Front don't differ that much from those of the centre-right, but because of the internal composition of the left, there is a growing tendency to abandon traditional neo-liberalism. What stands out most of their proposals is a increased focus on education and public health, areas which have been neglected in recent years."
In fact, the swing to the left has gone so far that the Popular Participation Movement, built on the remnants of the Tupamaro guerrilla movement which was crushed by the dictatorship in 1973, gained more votes than any other party.
It was this support which proved pivotal to the Broad Front coalition gaining control of both houses of Congress and several once-prominent guerrillas will now end up in the Senate.