(09/23/09) -

Uruguayan Ruling Coalition Widens Lead

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Uruguay’s conservative
parties are losing ground to the governing leftist parties, according to a poll
by Interconsult published in Últimas Noticias. 45 per cent of respondents would
vote for the ruling Progressive Encounter – Broad Front (EP-FA) in this year’s
general election, while 32 per cent would support the National Party-Whites
(PN-B).

–

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Uruguay’s conservative
parties are losing ground to the governing leftist parties, according to a poll
by Interconsult published in Últimas Noticias. 45 per cent of respondents would
vote for the ruling Progressive Encounter – Broad Front (EP-FA) in this year’s
general election, while 32 per cent would support the National Party-Whites
(PN-B).

Support for the EP-FA coalition is up one
point since August, while the PN-B has lost three points.

The Red Party (PC) is third with 11 per
cent, followed by the Independent Party (PI) with two per cent. 10 per cent of
respondents remain undecided.

Tabaré Vázquez—nominee for the EP-FA—won
the October 2004 election with 50.45 per cent of the vote, becoming the first
Uruguayan president to represent a political organization other than the PC and
the PN-B.

The president officially took over in March
2005, and began his government with majorities in the Chamber of Deputies—with
52 lawmakers in the 99-seat lower house—and the Chamber of Senators—with 18
legislators in the 31-seat upper house. Vázquez is constitutionally barred from
seeking a second consecutive term.

In late June, Uruguay’s four main political
parties held a non-mandatory primary ballot to select their presidential
candidates. Senator José Mujica secured the nomination for the EP-FA, former
president Luis Alberto Lacalle won the PN-B nod, Pedro Bordaberry will run for
the PC, and Pablo Mieres will be the contender for the PI.

The 74-year-old Mujica is a former leader
of the rebel Tupamaros National Liberation Movement (MLN). Lacalle was
president between 1990 and 1995.

On Sept. 17, president Vázquez criticized
Mujica—he was never a supporter of the candidate’s nomination by his
party—saying, “I share many of the things Mr. Mujica says but not all of them. (…)
I particularly disagree with his criticism of everything and everybody,
sometimes with a pontificating attitude, on philosophical grounds which finish
turns him prisoner of his expressions. Some of them are simply stupidities and
I certainly don’t share them”.

Uruguay
will hold presidential and legislative elections on Oct. 25.

Polling Data

If the presidential and parliamentary
elections took place this Sunday, which party would you vote for?

Source: Interconsult / Últimas Noticias
Methodology: Interviews to 900 Uruguayan aged 17 and older, conducted from Sept.
12 to Sept. 14, 2009. Margin of error is 3.4 per cent.