General elections were held in Uruguay on 28 November 1971 alongside a double referendum.Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p494 The result was a victory for the Colorado Party, which won the presidency and the most seats in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate.
Wilson Ferreira Aldunate of the National Party received the most votes for President of any individual candidate. However, as the combined Colorado vote exceeded the combined National vote by just over 12,000 votes, Colorado candidate Juan Maria Bordaberry became President. Under the Ley de Lemas system in effect at the time, the highest-finishing candidate of the party that won the most votes was elected President. This allowed Bordaberry to become President even though he personally received around 60,000 fewer votes than Ferreira.
The next month, US president Richard Nixon boasted to UK prime minister Edward Heath that Brazil, an ally of the US, had rigged the election to ensure that the left lost.
Fifteen months after taking office, Bordaberry carried out a self-coup, closing down the General Assembly and giving the military and police full powers to restore order. This marked the start of a civic-military dictatorship that ruled the country until the next free elections in 1984.
Results
See also Operation Thirty Hours
References
External links "Eleccion_nacional_1971.htm", Uruguayan government Corte Electoral Politics Data Bank at the Social Sciences School – Universidad de la República (Uruguay)