Jose Mujica’s opponents claimed he would transform the South American country into a radical socialist state, but he campaigned as a consensus builder, and polls suggested most voters were convinced he would govern from the center.

Mujica won 49 percent of the votes in October’s first round of the election, which secured another majority in Congress for the governing Broad Front coalition.

Former President Luis A. Lacalle of the center-right National Party finished second with 29 percent. But while Lacalle was expected to pick up most of the votes that went to the third-place Colorado Party, he trailed Mujica by 7 to 9 percentage points in the latest opinion polls.