Polls Open in Uruguay as Voters Chose Mujica Successor

Polls opened in Uruguay Sunday to elect a successor to folksy iconoclast President Jose Mujica, whose leftist coalition is fighting off youthful challengers from the country's more conservative traditional parties.

Polling began at 8:00 am (1000 GMT) with Mujica looking to hand power back to his predecessor, cancer doctor Tabare Vazquez of the Broad Front, who needs 50 percent plus one vote to avoid a runoff with Luis Lacalle Pou of the National Party or Pedro Bordaberry, the son of a former dictator who is running on the Colorado ticket.

A total of 2.6 million Uruguayans are eligible to vote in the mandatory presidential and general election and will turn out across nearly 6,950 polling stations.

Surrounded by supporters, Mujica -- famous for legalizing marijuana sales, living in a run-down house and donating most of his salary to charity -- was one of the first to vote in his Cerro neighborhood west of Montevideo. He arrived in an old Volkswagen, accompanied by his wife, Senator Lucia Topolansky.

Elections "are not war, they are an important step, but the country will come out ahead," he told reporters.

Mujica is backing frontrunner Vazquez, who hopes to reprise his 2004 election victory, which ended 174 years of dominance by the South American country's two traditional parties, the "Colorados" (Reds) and "Blancos" (Whites, now officially called the National Party).

"We are hoping for the best, but the people will speak," he said on arriving to cast his ballot.

After 10 years in office, the leftist Broad Front (FA) has lost some of its shine and is fending off vigorous challenges from the Blancos and Colorados, which both tend to the center-right.

The last polls before the elections, released Wednesday, showed Vazquez positioned to win between 43 and 46 percent of the vote, well ahead of his rivals but not enough for a first-round win.

It would also leave the left short of the decade-long legislative majority that it has used to approve sweeping tax and health care reforms and legalize abortion and marijuana.

If the polls prove accurate, Vazquez would face a November 30 run-off against National Party candidate Lacalle Pou, who had about 30 percent support going into Sunday's voting.

The son of a former president who has run on a platform of "positivity" and "fresh air," Lacalle Pou has said he will seek backing from Bordaberry, the Colorado Party candidate.

Bordaberry, whose father was Uruguay's dictator from 1973 to 1976, trailed in pre-vote polls with 15 to 18 percent support.

From the early hours Sunday, candidates took to social media, which are not covered by a ban on election day propaganda to bombard their supporters with pleas to vote.

Thousands of Uruguayans traveled by air, land and sea from neighboring Argentina, Paraguay and even far away Venezuela to cast their ballots, with the Broad Front making intensive efforts to bring home voters from abroad to bolster its ranks.

Besides the general election, Uruguayans will vote in a referendum on whether to lower the age at which a person can be tried for serious crimes, from 18 to 16. An absolute majority is needed to approve the change.