1994 Uruguayan general election

Summary

General elections were held in Uruguay on 27 November 1994, alongside a double referendum.[1] The result was a narrow victory for the Colorado Party, which won the most seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and received the most votes in the presidential election.

Tabaré Vázquez of the Broad Front received the most votes of any presidential candidate. However, former president Julio Maria Sanguinetti returned to office by virtue of the Colorados receiving the most votes of any party. Under the multi-candidate Ley de Lemas system in effect at the time, the highest-finishing candidate of the party that won the most votes was elected president. Vázquez finished just 12,100 fewer votes than the combined vote for the runner-up National Party, even though he won over 121,000 more votes than Sanguinetti. At the time, this was the best showing for a third party since the presidential system was reinstituted with the 1967 constitution.

They were the last presidential elections conducted under the Ley de Lemas system, which had been used for much of the 20th century and had been reinstituted in 1967. In 1996 a referendum amended the constitution to restrict each party to a single presidential candidate, effective from the 1999 elections.

Results edit

 
Results of the 1994 Uruguayan presidential election
  
PartyPresidential candidateVotes%Seats
Chamber+/–Senate+/–
Colorado PartyJulio María Sanguinetti500,76724.6832+211+2
Jorge Batlle Ibáñez102,5515.05
Jorge Pacheco Areco51,9362.56
Jorge Barreiro2270.01
al lema9470.05
Total656,42832.35
National PartyAlberto Volonté301,69814.8731–810–2
Juan Andrés Ramírez264,25813.02
Carlos Julio Pereyra65,6663.24
al lema1,7620.09
Total633,38431.21
Broad Front–Progressive EncounterTabaré Vázquez621,22630.6131+109+2
New SpaceRafael Michelini104,7735.165–41–1
Partido Verde Eto-EcologistaRodolfo Tálice5,4980.270000
Party of the SunMabel Portillo2,2580.110New0New
Civic UnionLuis Pieri2,0630.100New0New
Blue PartyRoberto Canessa1,6450.080New0New
Party for Social SecurityElías Yaffalian8280.040New0New
Workers' PartyJuan Vital Andrada3780.020000
Eastern AllianceFederico Silva Ledesma3330.020New0New
Righteous MovementBolívar Espínola1610.010000
Democratic Labour PartyPompeyo Giansanti1200.010New0New
Republican PartyAdemar Álvarez Franco1170.010New0New
Progressive MovementElías Perdomo690.000New0New
Total2,029,281100.0099031+1
Valid votes2,029,28195.31
Invalid/blank votes99,9644.69
Total votes2,129,245100.00
Registered voters/turnout2,330,15491.38
Source: Electoral Court

Further reading edit

  • Mieres, Pablo. Elecciones 1994: una nueva fase de la transformación electoral en el Uruguay (PDF) (in Spanish). Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2014.

References edit

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p494 ISBN 978-0-19-928358-3

External links edit

  • Politics Data Bank at the Social Sciences School – Universidad de la República (Uruguay)