Montevideo, Nov 25 (AP) Balloting in Uruguay's runoff election came to a close on Sunday, starting a countdown to the announcement of official results in a tight battle for the presidency between the conservative ruling coalition candidate and his left-wing challenger.

Independent polling firms will start releasing so-called quick counts now that polls have closed, but the official results are not likely to be released for hours. Depending on how tight the vote turns out to be, electoral officials may not call the race for days, as happened in the contentious 2019 runoff that brought centre-right President Luis Lacalle Pou to office and ended 15 years of rule by Uruguay's centre-left Broad Front coalition.

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Though polls show Uruguayans largely satisfied with the current government's performance, complaints about sluggish growth, persistent violent crime and stagnant wages could add Uruguay to a long list of countries where frustrated voters have punished incumbents in elections around the world this year. (AP)

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