Nov 05 2024 17 mins
Uruguay is a small country, with 3.4 million inhabitants and high levels of human development. Is the most stable democracy of Latin America and one of the few full democracies of the world.
However, some clouds are emerging in the horizon. The country has the highest imprisonment rate in South America and a high rate of homicides, with a figure over 10 per 100’000 inhabitants, that makes it epidemic according to the World Health Organization.
Besides that and despite the good institutional quality, there is a persistent gender gap. According to the gender gap index, by 2023 women were 85 percent less likely to have the same opportunities for political participation than men.
On October 27th Uruguay conducted elections. As expected, Yamandú Orsi, the candidate of the center-left Broad Front (Frente Amplio), received 44% of the votes, far from the second, the candidate of the current president Luis Lacalle Pou who got 27%.
However, there will be a second round because none of the candidates received more than 50% of the votes required by the law. This will take place on November 24 and there is uncertainty on the results because in 2019 almost all the center-right and right-wing parties allied in a coalition against the Broad Front. It could happen again.