With only ten days for the Uruguayan presidential run-off, incumbent candidate Jose Pepe Mujica leads with 48% vote intention while his rival Luis Alberto Lacalle stands at 42% and the undecided 10%, according to the latest public opinion poll released Thursday by a Montevideo newspaper.
Senator Lucia Topolansky, who would become Uruguay’s First Lady if her husband and incumbent presidential candidate Jose Mujica is confirmed in the run-off on November 29th promises to keep to an “austere and sober” style of government.
The International Court of The Hague will rule favourably for Uruguay in the litigation with Argentina over the Botnia pulp mill constructed on the Uruguayan side of a jointly managed river, anticipated Uruguay’s chief attorney in the case, Paul Reichler.
Uruguay will definitively abandon Mercosur if Luis Alberto Lacalle is elected president in the run off on November 29th. Lacalle also forecasted that Mercosur as a customs union has not much time left, “it’s a dying organization”.
Uruguay’s 2009/2010 cruise season is scheduled to begin next November 20th in Montevideo with the arrival of “Minerva” and four days later in Punta del Este with “MSC Musica”.
Uruguay’s ruling coalition presidential ticket, --Jose Mujica and Danilo Astori--, has a seven percentage points advantage over the opposition, Luis Alberto Lacalle and Jorge Larrañaga, for the run off the last Sunday of November, according to the latest opinion polls released in Montevideo
The Swedish-Finland group Stora Enso and Chile’s Arauco confirmed to the Uruguayan government their intention of building a pulp mill in the country with an investment in the range of two billion US dollars reports the Montevideo daily Ultimas Noticias.
The Argentine government strongly repudiated on Friday a report from the Environmental Board of Uruguay saying Argentina had adulterated information referred to the pulp mill dispute submitted to the International Court at The Hague.
Uruguay’s junior opposition Colorado party has recommended its followers to support Conservative presidential candidate Luis Alberto Lacalle for the November 29th run-off with the ruling coalition’s Jose Mujica.
French bank Credit Agricole officially announced this week it had begun consultations to sell its banking interests in Uruguay where it operates under the name of Credit Uruguay.