The result in Montevideo follows a trend of victories for anti-incumbency candidates in Latin America, and a regional leftward turn.

Uruguay’s leftist opposition candidate, Yamandú Orsi, became the country's new president in a tight runoff election that ousted the conservative governing coalition.

By Lucinda Elliott and Sarah Morland MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) -Center-left opposition candidate Yamandu Orsi secured victory in Uruguay's presidential election, official results showed on Sunday, with 99% of votes tallied,

Uruguay's leftist opposition candidate, Yamandú Orsi, claimed victory in a tight presidential runoff Sunday, ousting the conservative governing coalition and making the South American nation the latest to rebuke the incumbent party in a year of landmark elections.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguayans will return to the polls on Sunday for a second round of voting to choose their next president, with the conservative governing party and the left-leaning coalition locked in a close runoff after failing to win an outright majority in last month's vote.

President-elect Yamandu Orsi, of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) alliance, defeated Alvaro Delgado of the center-right National Party in the second round of voting, returning the country to left-wing rule. Orsi won 1,196,798 votes compared to Delgado’s 1,101,296, the country’s Electoral Court said — 49.8 percent to 45.9 percent.

Uruguay's new president-elect Yamandu Orsi, whose political ambitions were galvanized by his experience growing up in a dictatorship, was the pollsters' narrow favorite to win the second round of the South American nation's presidential election on Sunday for the center-left.

The presidential candidate of the conservative coalition that has governed Uruguay for the past five years conceded defeat after a tight runoff election, as the South American nation joined others aro

A left-wing former history teacher, Yamandú Orsi, has won the presidential election in Uruguay. Orsi beat Álvaro Delgado, the candidate for the governing conservative coalition, by more than three percentage points in Sunday's run-off.