By Malena Castaldi
MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Uruguay's ruling leftist party on Monday faced a tense five weeks in which to rally support and fend off a conservative alliance after its candidate Tabare Vazquez fell short of an outright win in the presidential election.
As results trickled in Sunday night, Vazquez, 74, acknowledged the Broad Front's fight for a third consecutive presidency would be forced to a runoff on Nov. 30 despite securing a strong lead in the first round.
Results on the electoral court's website showed Vazquez with 46.9 percent of votes with ballots counted in 98 percent of polling stations.
Centre-right challenger Luis Lacalle Pou had just 30.7 percent but he swiftly also secured the endorsement of the third placed conservative Colorado Party candidate, Pedro Bordaberry, on course to win about 13 percent.
While Vazquez will likely need votes from outside the Broad Front's traditional support base to cross the 50 percent threshold next month, he said he would not compromise his party's blend of pro-market economic policies and social reform.
"We aren?t going to run to any side. The ideas, the projects, the history and the results, we must promote them, not cover them up or camouflage them," Vazquez said late Sunday.
Thousands of Broad Front fans, some with party banners draped across their shoulders, partied into the night along Montevideo's main boulevard where the pungent smell of marijuana hung in the air.
Vazquez will face stiff competition from 41-year-old Lacalle Pou, a keen surfer seen by his supporters as a fresh face in Uruguayan politics.
RACE FOR VOTES
Lacalle Pou has tapped into a groundswell of discontent among more conservative voters toward reforms under the Broad Front's rule that have included legalizing the production and sale of cannabis, abortion and gay marriage.
Lacalle Pou, 41, has promised to reverse outgoing President Jose Mujica's pioneering marijuana law. Even so, he is still viewed as more liberal than previous National Party candidates, with appeal to voters both sides of centre.
He said he would not only reach out to right-wing parties but also to the Independent Party which pitches itself as a party of the centre-left and whose candidate looks set to have won 3 percent of the vote.
But some voters expected the Independent Party to align itself with the leftist Broad Front.
"The Independent Party will back Tabare in the second round, who will win with its support," said 63-year-old shopkeeper Nery Gonzalez. "There have been important changes in this country ... and the runoff vote will recognise that."
The Broad Front has delivered more than a decade of strong economic growth, first under Vazquez who brought it to power in 2005 and then under his successor Mujica. Uruguay's constitution does not allow a president two consecutive terms.
Many voters though have become disenchanted with tax hikes to pay for welfare measures as well as Mujica's social reforms.
"The Broad Front lifted people out of poverty at the cost of the middle class which it is killing it with taxes," said Ismael Buslon, a 48-year old teacher. "They are not aware that we just cannot keep on like this."
(Additional reporting by Esteban Farat; Writing by Richard Lough and Sarah Marsh; Editing by W Simon and Marguerita Choy)
