By Malena Castaldi
MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Leftist ruling party candidate Tabare Vazquez is in a strong position to win Uruguay's presidential election race after taking a big lead in the first round of voting, official results showed on Monday.
Vazquez, who was president in 2005-10 and is the ruling Broad Front's candidate again this time around, won 47.2 percent of votes in Sunday's election with returns counted from more than 99 percent of polling stations.
Although he fell short of the 50 percent majority needed for an outright win, he had a bigger than expected lead over his closest rival, Luis Lacalle Pou of the center-right National Party. The two men will now meet in a runoff on Nov. 30.
Lacalle Pou had just 30.5 percent support in the first round and while he swiftly secured the endorsement of third-placed Colorado Party contender Pedro Bordaberry, he faces an uphill battle to win the runoff.
Bordaberry won just 12.7 percent of the vote and Vazquez is likely to pick up votes from some smaller parties.
Vazquez said he would not compromise his party's blend of pro-market economic policies, popular welfare programs and social reforms in a bid to secure backing.
"We aren't going to run to any side. The ideas, the projects, the history and the results, we must promote them, not cover them up or camouflage them," he said late on Sunday.
Thousands of Broad Front fans, some with party banners draped across their shoulders, partied late into Sunday night along Montevideo's main boulevard.
Vazquez brought the Broad Front to power in 2005 and oversaw a five year period of steady economic growth and falling poverty levels, winning broad support.
The constitution barred him from a second consecutive term in 2010 but his ally Jose Mujica was elected and continued the model.
Mujica is widely respected for his humble lifestyle - he shunned the presidential palace for his rundown farmhouse - but tested the patience of more conservative voters with his liberal reforms, including the legalization of abortion, gay marriage and the production, sale and consumption of marijuana.
EYES ON INDEPENDENT PARTY
During the campaign, Lacalle Pou tapped into a groundswell of discontent toward tax hikes as well as the social reforms, and last week he said he would seek to overturn the marijuana law if he won.
"The Broad Front lifted people out of poverty at the cost of the middle class, which it is killing it with taxes," said Ismael Buslon, a 48-year old teacher. "They are not aware that we just cannot keep on like this."
The center-left Independent Party, whose candidate Pablo Mieres polled a distant fourth with 3 percent, is now in the spotlight.
Mieres said his party was undecided on which of the two candidates to back in the second round and that he would announce a decision on the weekend.
"We agree on some issues and disagree on others with both candidates," Mieres told Reuters. "But it's not a matter of simply adding up points in favor and against to arrive at a decision."
Many Independent Party voters would likely back Vazquez in the runoff and analysts said there would be little incentive for the party's leadership to back Lacalle Pou.
"They are more likely to want to back a winner that could yield them ministerial positions and power," said Juan Carlos Doyenart of Montevideo consultancy Interconsult. "Vazquez has already virtually won the runoff."
(Additional reporting by Esteban Farat in Montevideo and Sarah Marsh in Buenos Aires; Writing by Richard Lough and Sarah Marsh; Editing by Kieran Murray)