The candidate is giving way to a left-wing challenger in Uruguay’s hard-fought presidential election

The presidential candidate of the conservative coalition that has ruled Uruguay for the past five years conceded defeat on Sunday after a close election, even as the counting of votes continued.

Alvaro Delgado, a candidate for the central government, told supporters at his campaign headquarters that “sadly, but without guilt, we can congratulate the winner,” referring to his left-wing rival Yamandú Orsi.

Election officials said Orsi received 784,523 votes, more than half of all votes counted, compared to 771,434 for Delgado.

Delgado’s approval, with more than 57 percent of the official votes counted, ushers in Orsi of the center-left Broad Front as Uruguay’s new leader.

It means the end of a short period of right-wing government in Uruguay that in 2020, with the election of President Luis Lacalle Pou, he broke 15 years of rule by the Broad Front.

The Broad Front gained international fame in those years for overseeing the legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage and the sale of marijuana.

The group released a statement on X, previously on Twitter, saying “Happiness will return” and announcing Orsi as president.

“I called Yamandú Orsi to congratulate him as the elected President of our country,” Lacalle Pou wrote in X, adding that “he will put himself to work and start the revolution as soon as I see fit.”