Uruguayan Primaries Update: 12% of the Roll Voted in the First 4 Hours
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle casts his vote, June 30, 2024. Photo: X/ @EFEnoticias
June 30, 2024 Hour: 1:12 pm
“We, the old people, vote early,” former President Pepe Mujica said.
Until midday on Sunday, 12 percent of Uruguayans eligible to vote had attended the party primaries, according to the Electoral Court.
RELATED:
Primary Elections Kick Off in Uruguay
In the capital city Montevideo, authorities estimate that 10 percent of citizens have already cast their vote. In the rest of the country there are departments where participation is close to 15 percent.
As of 8:00 a.m., 7,105 voting circuits are prepared to potentially serve 2.7 citizens who are eligible to elect their next president in the October elections.
Among the famous politicians who voted early is the leftist Broad Front’s leader, Jose Mujica, who served as president of this South American nation between 2010 and 2015.
“We, the old people, vote early,” said Mujica, the historic leader of the Tupamaros guerrillas who assured that he will die fighting on the Left because that is his way of life.
After casting his vote, he asked his party not to do what it did in the 2014 primary elections, when its leaders did not choose the vice presidential candidate immediately after the results were known. “The best thing would be for the second most voted pre-candidate to accompany the winner,” he said.
Official pre-candidates such as Alvaro Delgado and Laura Raffo, as well as opposition pre-candidates Yamandu Orsi and Carolina Cosse have also already exercised their right to vote.
President Luis Lacalle, who will exercise his mandate until March 2025, also cast his vote in the morning, inviting all political actors to respect the citizen’s decision and take it with “a lot of humility and responsibility.”
One of the variables that will affect attendance in the primary elections will be the climate in a country where “the winter is harsh and 54 percent of the population is over 35 years old and 16 percent is over 65,” El Destape outlet recalled.
“Approximately 15 percent of voters say they will not go to vote if it is very cold,” it stated, adding that the Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (INUMET) predicts that the lowest temperature will reach -2°C in the country’s south-central area.
Autor: teleSUR/ JF
Fuente: EFE - El Destape - Ajuaa
