PROFILE - Luis Lacalle Pou, president-elect of Uruguay

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - Nearly 15 years of leftist rule in Uruguay came to an end on Thursday with the election victory of Luis Lacalle Pou.

Lacalle's center-right National Party (Partido Nacional) won Sunday's runoff after the candidate of the ruling socialist Broad Front (Frente Amplio) party, Daniel Martinez, conceded defeat on Thursday.

Born Luis Alberto Alejandro Aparicio Lacalle Pou on Aug. 11, 1973, in capital Montevideo, the president-elect of Uruguay is a graduate of law.

Lacalle, son of former president Luis Alberto Lacalle, and married to Lorena Ponce de Leon with three children, won on the slogan "Uruguay for all" -- El Uruguay De Todos.

After studying at the The British Schools of Montevideo in his primary and secondary school, he received his law degree from the Catholic University of Uruguay.

He was the first elected representative for the department of Canelones in the 1999 general elections. Later in 2004 and 2009, he was reelected consecutively and served until 2015.

Although he ran for presidency in 2014, conservative Lacalle was defeated in second round of elections.

On Nov. 24, 2019, Lacalle secured 48.71% of the unofficial vote in the second round of the Uruguayan General Election against his opponent Daniel Martinez who got 47.51%.

Martinez was a former mayor of Montevideo and his the candidate of ruling socialist Broad Front (Frente Amplio) party.

In 2005, Tabare Vazquez became Uruguay’s first leftist president, winning the 2004 presidential election.

In the November 2009 runoff election, Jose Mujica, a senator and former left-wing rebel fighter, was elected president of Uruguay with more than half the vote.

Vazquez was reelected to take office for the second time in 2015.