Presidential Election, 27 October 2024

Uruguay held elections on 27 October 2024, electing the president and members of the bicameral General Asssembly. The president is elected by a two-round system. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes in the first round, a run-off takes place between the two leading candidates (International IDEA n.d.a). Both the Senate (30 seats) and the House of Representatives (99 seats) are elected by list proportional representation, with members serving five-year terms (Parlamento del Uruguay n.d.). The Corte Electoral (Electoral Court) is an independent authority responsible for managing elections. Its nine members are appointed by the General Assembly based on party affiliation and expertise (International IDEA n.d.b). Voting in Uruguay is compulsory from age 18 (ACE n.d.).

In April 2024, political parties in Uruguay reaffirmed an agreement—first signed five years earlier—committing them to confronting disinformation and conducting an electoral campaign free of fake news (Infobae 2024a). Although disinformation was not seen on a major scale, one case concerned the delivery of voting before the election, a common practice in Uruguay. Hundreds of users suggested on social networks that the opposition party Frente Amplio (FA) was thereby violating the secrecy of the vote and electoral law. Electoral Court Minister Pablo Klippenbach explained that this was a false claim (Silva 2024). Journalists also found that fake accounts on social media intended for disinformation purposes were present in the country (Grippo 2024).

AI was frequently used in the elections but rarely with a malicious intent, according to AI experts in Uruguay. For example, a chat bot was made for the public to ask questions about the parties’ political proposals for the elections. Another chat bot acting as President Lacalle Pou was also launched for the public to ask questions about his politics as president. The bot based its answers on published articles that it referred to when answering. However, deepfakes of candidate Yamandu Orsi created by a television network drew criticism from politicians and journalists. There is currently no legislation regulating the use of AI in electoral campaigns (De Marco 2024).

No presidential candidate received a majority vote in the first round, resulting in a run-off on 24 November between Yamandu Orsi (Frente Amplio party) and Alvaro Delgado (Partido Nacional). Orsi secured 43.2 per cent of the vote, and Delgado received 28 per cent (Al Jazeera 2024). Female representation in parliament increased slightly,  to 29 per cent of the seats. However, this is still below the Latin American continent’s average (35 per cent). There has been a 50 percent quota for female members of parliament since 2009 (International IDEA n.d.a), but this is ignored by most parties (Infobae 2024b). Earlier in 2024 the General Assembly voted on a gender parity law for party lists, which failed. 

A UN Women survey found that nearly 80% of female politicians reported experiencing gender-based violence (GBV), primarily through disrespectful comments, with almost half of these incidents occurring frequently, especially during election periods (UN Women 2024). Vice Presidential candidate Ripoll faced intensified online abuse targeting her gender identity and personal attributes, such as her appearance, in an attempt to undermine her legitimacy (Samudio 2024).

Voter turnout for the election was 89.52 per cent, down by 0.61 per cent compared to the 2019 elections (International IDEA n.d.c). In addition to the presidential election, citizens voted on two referendums: one on night-time police raids and one on lowering the retirement age from 65 to 60 (Cefeidas Group 2024). Neither referendum secured a majority of the vote (El Observador 2024).