Buenos Aires/Montevideo - Sunday's presidential run-off in Uruquay is likely to complete the journey of former Tupamaru guerilla Jose Mujica from the 1973-85 military dictatorship's torture cells to the presidential palace. The 74-year-old Mujica - "Pepe" to his supporters - is the nominee of the ruling leftist coalition Frente Amplio (Broad Front), and opinion polls predict that he would get 50 per cent of the vote and win the presidency.
Mujica's run-off rival, conservative former president Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-95), is expected get an estimated 40-42 per cent of the vote, according to opinion polls, with up to 10 per cent of the electorate undecided.
In the first round of voting on October 25, Mujica received almost 48 per cent of the vote, compared with to 29 per cent for Lacalle, the National Party nominee.
Another conservative, Pedro Bordaberry of the Colorado Party, got 17 per cent and has since endorsed Lacalle. According to opinion polls, however, not all Colorado Party voters will follow their leader's advice.
Oscar Botinelli, director of polling firm Factum, says that even the 10 per cent of voters still undecided cannot prevent Mujica's expected triumph.
Uruguayan political analysts note that Lacalle, 68, carried out a somewhat hapless campaign and drew too much attention through clumsy comments.
The conservative camp tried with little success to make Mujica's guerrilla past an election issue.
Former president Jorge Batlle Ibanez, in office from 2000 to 2005, and others expressed suspicions that a weapons arsenal that police found on October 31 in Montevideo might have belonged to Mujica's Tupamaros. However, the conservatives could not come up with any proof, and police suspect the seized weapons belonged to smugglers.
Mujica, a farmer and senator with a grandfatherly appearance, who however often speaks in an abrasive tone, was imprisoned by the military for 14 years under harsh conditions which included years in solitary confinement.
Humble and pragmatic, he shows none of the revolutionary pathos of the old days. Speaking in his usual blunt way, Mujica says that his presidency would bring neither perfection nor the apocalypse.
"I want to improve things a little," he said, underlining the need to fight poverty, improve education and boost science and technology.
The Frente Amplio first took power in 2004, and outgoing President Tabare Vazquez led a successful reformist government during his five-year term that has retained the approval of about 60 per cent of the population, according to opinion surveys.
About 2.3 million registered voters are to elect Vazquez' successor on Sunday. The incumbent is banned from running because the country's laws forbid two consecutive terms. The winner is to be inaugurated as president on March 1.
