In the presidential election of Uruguay, South America, held on the 24th local time, candidate Yavandu Orsi of the center-left "wide front" (FA) was elected.
According to Uruguay's election court, Orsi edged Alvaro Delgado of the center-right ruling Nationalist Party, with 81 percent of the votes counted in the two-way presidential runoff.
President-elect Orsi also topped the first round of voting last month and was expected to win exit polls.
"I will help President-elect Orsi to make Uruguay a better country," Delgado said as he accepted the defeat.
President-elect Orsi has recently pledged to strengthen security, which is recognized as the biggest social problem because of rising crime rates.
It also promised to expand welfare for the poor and establish a clean policy-making process.
With Orsi's victory, the center-left party is back in power in Uruguay for the first time in five years.
President-elect Orsi, who frequently expressed respect for former President Jose Mujica, 89, of the same party known for his cleanliness, especially expressed his intention to appoint people from the center-right side to the Cabinet, saying, "The essence of politics is consensus," local daily El Pais reported.
President-elect Orsi, who became interested in politics in the wake of Uruguay's military dictatorship (1973-1985), is a politician who was in charge of the administration of Canelones state, a densely populated area following the capital Montevideo, from 2015 until recently.
Before that, I worked as a teacher in middle and high school.
President-elect Orsi visited Korea with a government delegation to host the "Uruguai Day" event at the Yeosu World Expo in 2012.
He comes from an Italian immigrant family and has been well-received for leading local governments and embracing center and right-wing figures, daily El Opserbador said.
His metropolitan line was the first left-wing regime to take power in 2004 in Uruguay, which has long been a two-party (white party and red party) system with former President Tavare Vázquez (1940-2020).
Since then, former President Mujica and former President Vazquez have won successfully and remained firmly in the ruling party for 15 years before handing power to current President Rakaye Pou of the White Party in the 2019 presidential election.
However, the presidential election will bring the center-left back to power in Uruguay for the first time in five years.
The trend of launching a series of left-wing governments in Latin America (pink Tide) has become more pronounced.
In the region, left-wing governments are in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Considering Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, the diplomatic and security landscape in Latin America is leaning to the left.
Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama are among the countries where right-wing leaders run state affairs.
Uruguay is a powerful country bordering Brazil and Argentina, with 3.4 million people living on a land 1.7 times larger than South Korea south of the border (176,000 square kilometers).
The per capita GDP is the highest in Latin America, and indicators such as government integrity and level of contribution to the international community also show exemplary figures in South America, according to the Korean Embassy in Uruguay.
It established diplomatic relations with Korea on October 7, 1964, and 155 Korean residents (as of 2023) live there.
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