General elections were held in Uruguay on 26 October 2014, alongside a

constitutional referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

. As no presidential candidate received an absolute majority in the first round of voting, a

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

took place on 30 November. Primary elections to determine each party's presidential candidate had been held on 1 June. Incumbent President

José Mujica José Alberto "Pepe" Mujica Cordano (; born 20 May 1935) is a Uruguayan politician, former revolutionary and farmer who served as the 40th president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. A former guerrilla with the Tupamaros, he was tortured and impr ...

was ineligible to run owing to a constitutional limit on serving consecutive terms. The governing Broad Front nominated Mujica's predecessor, Tabaré Vázquez, as its candidate. Vázquez came within a few thousand votes of a first-round victory and advanced to the runoff with National Party candidate Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, son of former president Luis Alberto Lacalle de Herrera. In the runoff, Vázquez was returned to office with the widest margin since the run-off system was first implemented in 1999. The Broad Front also maintained its majority in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

, winning 50 of the 99 seats.

Electoral system

The president was elected using the two-round system, with a run-off required if no candidate received 50% of the vote in the first round. The 30 members of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

were elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. The 99 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected by proportional representation in 19 multi-member constituencies based on the

departments Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. Seats are allocated using the

highest averages method A highest-averages method, also called a divisor method, is a class of methods for allocating seats in a parliament among agents such as political parties or federal states. A divisor method is an iterative method: at each iteration, the number o ...

. The elections were held using the double simultaneous vote method, whereby voters cast a single vote for the party of their choice for the Presidency, the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives.

Candidates

Presidential primaries were held on 1 June to select the candidates.

Campaign

There were around 250,000 new voters in this election, many of them not used to traditional media. Campaign managers and advertising agents took notice of this new trend, and implemented an important portion of their campaign via social media.

Opinion polls

Results

Within the Broad Front coalition, the Movement of Popular Participation won six seats in the Senate, the Liber Seregni Front won three and the Socialist Party won two. Following the second round of the presidential elections, the Broad Front gained an extra seat in the Senate, giving them a majority, as Vice President Raúl Fernando Sendic Rodríguez automatically became a member.

By department

References

External links

Electoral Process in Uruguay 2014-2015

Electoral Court of Uruguay The Electoral Court of Uruguay ( es, Corte Electoral de Uruguay) is the autonomous body which oversees the implementation of electioneering process, such as elections, referendums on laws and constitutional plebiscites in the Oriental Republic of ...

{{Uruguayan elections Elections in Uruguay Uruguay General Uruguay Uruguay Tabaré Vázquez