Left-wing coalition ahead in Uruguay election race

Uruguayans are voting in primary elections ahead of the 2024 presidential race, in which the left-wing opposition is seen edging ahead according to opinion polls.

Voters head to the ballot box on Sunday concerned about rising inequality and public safety.

Polls show voters cooling on the centre-right coalition of President Luis Lacalle Pou, despite its successful steering of the farming economy of 3.4 million people through the COVID-19 pandemic and economic setbacks following the war in Ukraine.

Lacalle Pou, 50, has struggled to back up a pledge to tackle drug crime which is hurting Uruguay's reputation as a beacon of stability in turbulent South America.

A perceived weakness of the welfare state and rising corruption has also hurt his party.

That has seen the centre-left Broad Front coalition, which ruled from 2004 to 2015, edge ahead of the main centre-right parties, latest opinion polls showed.

Uruguayan pollster Cifra predicts the Broad Front will receive 47 per cent support in May, some 15 points ahead of Lacalle Pou's National Party, the main force within the ruling coalition.

The wider conservative bloc combined, though, would get about 43 per cent.

About 10 per cent remain undecided suggesting that October's presidential election will be tight.

Whoever wins in general elections scheduled for October 27, or more likely in a November run-off, will need to bring down high homicide rates, improve the social safety net, balance trade with major partner China and keep on track an economy that is expected to grow almost four per cent this year.

Lacalle Pou remains popular but his cabinet has been rocked by accusations of political espionage and corruption.

He cannot run for immediate re-election.

Lacalle Pou narrowly won the 2019 election by forging a "multi-colour coalition" including the centrist Colorado Party which his hand-picked successor, Alvaro Delgado, plans to replicate.

Delgado has pitched himself as the continuity candidate, having served as cabinet chief to the president, and is widely expected to secure the National Party nomination, polls show.

Several presidential hopefuls for the smaller Colorado Party have said they would unite behind the National Party nominee to prevent the left from returning to power.

The most contested leadership race is within the Broad Front opposition between two leftist city mayors.

Yamandu Orsi, mayor of Uruguay's second largest region and a former teacher, is expected to beat Carolina Cosse, mayor of the capital Montevideo where almost half of the population live.

Orsi's experience and public endorsement from former president Jose Mujica, an icon of the Latin American left, meant he was better placed to win the presidential nomination, analysts said.

"Uruguay today is an insecure and unequal country," Orsi told Reuters ahead of the primary vote, pledging "a modern left" that will reverse damaging rates of "poverty and destitution".

Polls open at 8am local time (1100 GMT) on Sunday and close at 7.30pm, with first exit polls expected about 9pm.