MONTEVIDEO, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Uruguay held primary elections on Sunday to nominate the presidential hopeful for every political party in the general elections scheduled for Oct. 27.

Citizen participation in the primaries is voluntary, unlike in the general elections that will decide who succeeds President Luis Lacalle Pou.

Lacalle was among those casting their votes Sunday in the city of Canelones, 50 km north of the capital Montevideo. He declined to make comments to the press.

Despite frigid temperatures, the voting progressed "totally normally" at some 7,105 voting centers across the country, Jose Garchitorena, minister of the Electoral Court of Uruguay, told Xinhua.

Observers expect the general elections to head to a runoff in November between the candidate of the ruling coalition led by the National Party (PN) and that of the left-wing opposition coalition the Broad Front (FA), which governed from 2005 to 2020.

Alvaro Delgado, having served as secretary of the Presidency from 2020 to 2023, is widely expected to secure the PN-led coalition's candidate.

Voting in the capital, Delgado, 55, called for citizen participation in the primaries, saying the public should "not be spectators, but protagonists."

Meanwhile, the FA is seeing a tight primary race between 57-year-old Yamandu Orsi, former mayor of Canelones, Uruguay's second most populated city, and 62-year-old Carolina Cosse, mayor of Montevideo.

One of the first to vote for the FA in the capital, former President Jose Mujica said there is a process of "renewal" in the political system.

The winner of the general elections will take office on March 1, 2025. Enditem

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