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Ballot box gives ex-guerrilla Uruguay's presidency
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-30 16:16 Many voters said the single five-year term required by Uruguay's constitution wasn't enough to consolidate the successes of Vazquez, who imposed a progressive income tax and used the revenue to lower unemployment and poverty, provide equal access to health care to everyone under 18 and steer the economy to 1.9 percent growth this year even as many other economies shrank. Lacalle, a scion of Uruguay's political elite, championed privatizations during his 1990-95 term and had vowed this time to eliminate the income tax and "take a chain saw" to state bureaucracies. But he also acknowledged Vazquez's successes in the economy. The Broad Front held on to a narrow majority in Congress, where Topolansky earned the most votes in the Senate and will therefore be third in line to the presidency, after Vice President-elect Danilo Astori. As for Mujica, he still has the appearance of an anti-politician, a gruff old man more comfortable driving a tractor on his farm than shuffling through marbled halls. Topolansky has said she'll only reluctantly endure the protocols of a first lady. As Uruguay's first couple, they could finally taste luxury, in the official presidential residence in Montevideo as well as at Parque Anchorena, a beautiful presidential estate in the city of Colonia. But the couple have said they prefer to stay in their "chacra," a little flower farm in the Rincon del Cerro, a working-class community with dirt roads and small plots on the edge of the capital. Vazquez, the outgoing president, also chose to stay in his own home and use the mansion only for official functions.
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