MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Polls are closed in Uruguay: Vote count begins in referendum questioning the government

The 'Yes' vote was promoted by social and political organizations, among them, the Frente Amplio, the leftist coalition that governed Uruguay between 2005 and 2020

The Uruguayan Electoral Court started counting the votes cast for the referendum against the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC), the main project of the Government of Luis Lacalle Pou, after the closing of the more than seven thousand centers enabled in the country at 19.30 local time.

Read also: Uruguayans decide to maintain key law for Lacalle’s government with tight referendum result

At the closing of the polling stations, the Electoral Court informed that 85 % of the census cast their vote -which in Uruguay is mandatory and can only be done in the territory of origin since there is no postal or consular voting- at the closing time of the polls.

According to the president of the organization, José Arocena, it was “an exemplary day”, in which no incident was registered.

The 'Yes' vote was promoted by social and political organizations, among them, the trade union central, the PIT-CNT, and the Frente Amplio, the leftist coalition that governed Uruguay between 2005 and 2020, after a campaign of several months to collect signatures (until over 25% of the required census), which led to the holding of this referendum.

It is expected that at 20.30 (23.30 GMT), the Electoral Court will begin to offer the first results.

Uruguay lived a day without incidents during the referendum vote against 135 of the 476 articles of Law 19.889, enacted in July 2020, just three months after the beginning of Lacalle Pou's term of office (2020-2025).

This consultation, the fourth of its kind in post-dictatorship times (1973-1985) and separated from presidential elections, has been interpreted as a sort of rejection or support to Lacalle Pou, although neither the president nor the leader of the opposition, Fernando Pereira, have wanted to consider this idea of a mid-term election.

The Uruguayan president is the main promoter of the LUC, which he displayed as a banner during the campaign that led him to the Presidency and which is an extensive norm of 476 articles, qualified as an 'omnibus law' due to the variety of the matters it encompasses.

While Lacalle Pou has highlighted the improvements achieved in public safety, education, labor matters -mainly in the right to strike and the regulation of picketing-, in the regulation of adoptions or in financial freedom, social and political organizations consider that the 135 articles under discussion violate important rights of the Uruguayan population.

To repeal the 135 articles, the 'Yes' vote must obtain half plus one of the valid votes, that is, more votes than the sum of the 'No' and blank votes (envelopes without ballot paper or containing a foreign object).

With information from EFE