Ballot box gives ex-guerrilla Uruguay’s presidency

A former guerrilla fighter has achieved through the ballot box what he could never earn by bombing and kidnapping the power to legitimately lead an entire nation.

A former guerrilla fighter has achieved through the ballot box what he could never earn by bombing,kidnapping and attacking his political enemies the power to legitimately lead an entire nation.

Jose Mujica,now president-elect of Uruguay,seemed like he could hardly believe the transformation himself in his rousing victory speech Sunday night,delivered as rain drenched thousands of supporters along the Ramblas,Montevideo’s coastal avenue.

“The people gave us this victory!” Mujica shouted,moving back and forth as aides struggled to cover the 74-year-old with umbrellas.

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“There are those who believe that power is up above,and they don’t notice that it’s actually in the hearts of the great masses. Thank you! It cost me an entire life,perhaps,to learn this. Thank you,and until forever!”

Mujica won more than 50 per cent of the votes cast on Sunday,compared to about 45 per cent for former President Luis A Lacalle,according to exit polls by Cifra,Factum and Equipos Mori,the South American nation’s leading pollsters.

The Electoral Court was slowly releasing official results,but the conservative Lacalle conceded the race.

Mujica thanked all his “brothers” across Latin America in his victory speech,but there is one president in particular that he has claimed as his inspiration: Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,who also rose from militancy,as a union chief,to become a popular centrist at the helm of government.