In Uruguay election, conservatives hopes pinned to a dark horse kingmaker

By Lucinda Elliott

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Uruguayan Alvaro Delgado, a 55-year-old former senator and the conservative ruling coalition's continuity candidate for president, is trailing his center-left rival in the polls, but has a wild card up his sleeve. A dark horse ally in third place.

Delgado, who once studied to be a vet and until recently was Cabinet chief for President Luis Lacalle Pou, will take on poll frontrunner Yamandu Orsi in Sunday's first round vote. Pollsters see Orsi well ahead, but not winning outright, which would mean a Nov. 24 second round run-off.

That could set up a head-to-head photo finish, with a young, upstart conservative lawyer Andres Ojeda, 40, in third place, gaining ground on the leaders with a vibrant, social media-driven campaign. He's pledged to support Delgado if knocked out.

"We have each other's back," Ojeda said, adding that his centrist Colorado Party was closely aligned politically with Delgado's National Party and would unite if needed to block the center-left Broad Front returning to power.

"We will always be partners."

Delgado has played up his credentials as the continuity and stability candidate. He wants to push ahead the current government's aims for free-trade deals including with China, hold taxes down and deepen a fight against organized crime.

"I want to be the president of certainties and of a Uruguay that advances. I want to be president to continue the course that began with our government," Delgado said from the campaign trail this week in the country's rural interior.

"What this government has done allows us to dream big and be more ambitious so that Uruguay takes a leap and becomes the most developed country in Latin America."

He wants more video surveillance and a larger police force to increase security, a key voter concern. He also needs to address accusations of corruption that have hit the government's popularity. A robust economy, however, is helping him.

'THE NEW REPLACING THE OLD'

Uruguay's former Central Bank chief Diego Labat, an ally and likely finance minister if Delgado wins, said the candidate had bags of experience, strong "negotiating skills" and could build relationships across the political aisle.

"He's been behind all the big decisions during this administration," Labat said.

Political insiders described Delgado as a "stickler for detail" and pointed to his track record in government. Voters cited his steadiness, though added the party hadn't captured voter imagination in the same way Lacalle Pou did in 2019.

Delgado has indeed seen his vote share slip in polls in recent months, with Ojeda, seen as the "new face" of Uruguayan politics, gaining ground on him with policies on mental health, crime, child poverty - as well as workout videos at the gym.

Ojeda's strength should play in Delgado's favor if he faces a second round against Orsi as expected. But it could also come back to bite him if Ojeda's numbers rise so far that he edges him out in the first round.

"Our thinking is similar to the proposals of the National Party," Ojeda said, though he downplayed the left-right divide, which is far less sharp in Uruguay than many of its neighbors.

"I'm in line with other new leaders in the region that don't make it all about being left or right," he said. "Rather, it's about the new replacing the old."

(Reporting by Lucinda Elliott; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Lisa Shumaker)