MS People carrying ballot boxes
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2 shots People cue up to vote
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MCU (4 shots) People take ballot box into bldg.
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MCU (2 shots) Ballot boxes piled up
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M (4 shots) Various shots of new president of Uruguay
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Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: More than 1,130,000 Uruguayan voters went to the polls Sunday (27 Nov) and replaced their Swiss style rotating presidential system with a one-man chief executive. For the new job, they chose retired Air Force General Oscar Daniel Gestido.

On March 1st, General Gestido will become the first full-term president of Uruguay in 15 years. The General is a member of the Colorado Party, which has been the party of opposition for eight years before the 1966 election. But the Colorados got more than 528,000 votes to a few more than 419,600 for the Blancos with most of the vote counted, the other major party, and so were returned to power throughout the country.

It was in 1958 that the Blanco Party took over power from the Colorados for the first time in 93 years. And not the Colorados have it back.

Although private polls and surveys had predicted that the plan to reform the job of the nation's chief executive would win, many Uruguayan seemed surprised that it did. The reform plan had bi-partisan support from both the Colorados and the Blancos. Three other reform plans, including one put forth by the Communists, did not draw away enough votes to cause the defeat of the so-called orange reform.

General Gestido, who celebrated his 65th birthday Monday (28 Nov) maintained a sober military bearing at the crowded Colorado Party headquarters, when he visited there at noon. He refused to discuss his plans as president until the final results showed him the winner.