President Tabare Vazquez

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - A blunt-talking former guerrilla fighter won Uruguay's presidential election on Sunday, promising to leave behind his radical past and take a moderate path in one of Latin America's most stable countries. Jose Mujica, a 74-year-old ex-senator, claimed victory after his rival, conservative former President Luis Lacalle, conceded the race with pollsters' projections showing Mujica ahead with more than 51 percent of the vote. Mujica is expected to maintain the investor-friendly policies of popular outgoing President Tabare Vazquez, who is from the same leftist coalition and has overseen strong economic growth. The president-elect said he aims to emulate Brazilian President Luiz Inacio ... Read Full Story

A plain-talking former leader of leftist guerrillas who once sought power through kidnappings and bombings is now the president-elect of Uruguay. Jose Mujica won more than 50 percent of the votes cast in a run-off election Sunday, according to exit polls by the South American country's three leading pollsters, giving the center-left Broad Front coalition five more years in power. Former President Luis A. Lacalle of the center-right National Party conceded defeat. He trailed with about 45 percent of the votes, exit polls by Cifra, Factum and Equipos Mori said. The Electoral Court was expected to release offical results late Sunday. Lacalle had sought ... Read Full Story

A former leftist rebel who spent 14 years in jail appeared likely to win Sunday's runoff presidential elections in Uruguay against a conservative ex-president as voters in the northeast brave floodwaters to cast their ballots. Some 2.5 million people are eligible to vote in Sunday's polls made necessary last October, when former rebel Jose Mujica won about 48 percent support, falling short of the majority needed to beat former president Luis Lacalle, who garnered around 28 percent. With opinion polls placing him six to eight points ahead of his rival, Mujica is nonetheless viewed with suspicion by some of the country's conservatives because he ... Read Full Story

A plain-talking former leftist guerrilla is heavily favored to win Uruguay's presidential run-off election Sunday and keep the country's popular center-left coalition in power for another five years. Jose Mujica's opponents claimed he would transform the South American country into a radical socialist state, but he campaigned as a consensus builder, and polls suggested most voters were convinced he would govern from the center. Mujica won 49 percent of the votes in October's first round of the election, which secured another majority in Congress for the governing Broad Front coalition. Former President Luis A. Lacalle of the center-right National Party finished second with 29 ... Read Full Story

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - A former guerrilla fighter who was jailed for 14 years is poised on Sunday to become Uruguay's next president in a runoff vote seen as a referendum on the economic success of the country's ruling leftist coalition. Jose Mujica, 74, who waged an armed revolt against Uruguay's democratically elected government in the 1960s and 1970s, leads by at least 6 points in opinion polls over his center-right rival, former President Luis Lacalle. A Mujica victory would keep in power the ruling Broad Front coalition credited by many Uruguayans with lifting the country out of an economic slump earlier this decade and ... Read Full Story