Politics of Uruguay

Politics of Uruguay
Polity type	Unitary presidential constitutional republic
Constitution	Constitution of Uruguay
Legislative branch
Name	General Assembly
Type	Bicameral
Meeting place	Legislative Palace of Uruguay
Upper house
Name	Senate
Presiding officer	Beatriz Argimón, Vice President of Uruguay & President of the Senate
Lower house
Name	Chamber of Representatives
Presiding officer	Ana Olivera
Executive branch
Head of State and Government
Title	President
Currently	Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou
Cabinet
Current cabinet	Cabinet of Uruguay
Headquarters	Executive Tower
Ministries	14
Judicial branch
Name	Judiciary of Uruguay
Supreme Court
Chief judge	Elena Martínez Rosso

Politics of Uruguay
Constitution Current constitution (1997) Previous constitutions 1830 1918 1934 1942 1952 1967
Executive President (list) Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou Cabinet
Legislative Vice President Beatriz Argimón General Assembly Senate President Chamber of Representatives President Palacio Legislativo
Judiciary Supreme Court
Administrative divisions Departments Municipalities
Elections Political parties Recent elections General: 2014 2019 2024 Municipal: 2010 2015 2020 Electoral Court Ley de Lemas (voting system)
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Relations Minister: Omar Paganini (list) Diplomatic missions of / in Uruguay Nationality law Passport Visa requirements Visa policy
See also Law of Uruguay Civil Code State companies
Uruguay portal Other countries
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Uruguay topics
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The politics of Uruguay abide by a presidential representative democratic republic, under which the president of Uruguay is both the head of state and the head of government, as well as a multiform party system. The president exercises executive power and legislative power and is vested in the two chambers of the General Assembly of Uruguay. The Judiciary is independent from the executive and legislature.

The Colorado and National parties have been locked in a power struggle, with the predominance of the Colorado party throughout most of Uruguay's history. The 2004 election, however, brought the Encuentro Progresista-Frente Amplio-Nueva Mayoría, a coalition of socialists, former Tupamaros, communists, social democrats, and Christian Democrats among others to power with majorities in both houses of parliament. A majority vote elected President Tabaré Vázquez.

In 2009, the Broad Front once again won the elections with a plurality of the votes. A presidential runoff was triggered because their candidate, José Mujica, received only 47.96 percent of the vote. The Broad Front's candidate beat former president Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera of the Nacional Party in the second round of voting. In addition to the presidency, the Broad Front won a simple majority in the Uruguayan Senate and Chamber of Representatives.^[1] In 2014, former president Tabaré Vázquez retook power after defeating, in a second round, the candidate of the National Party, Luis Lacalle Pou, who would be the winner of the 2019 election, surpassing the socialist Daniel Martínez with 50.79 to 49.2 percent of the vote.^[2]

According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Uruguay is 2023 the 4th most electoral democratic country in Latin America.^[3]