An anticipated night of celebration on Sunday ended in an election that is too close to call in Uruguay.

CGTN’s Lucrecia Franco reports.

Luis Lacalle Pou and his conservative National party maintain a razor-thin lead over the governing “left-center” bloc candidate Daniel Martinez.

As the results trickled in, it became clear something was not right. The process was taking longer than expected.

Lacalle Pou, the 46-year-old politician who had a six to eight-point lead over the Broad Front party, thanks to the backing of five opposition parties, had to ask his followers to wait.

The difference had dropped to around 30,000  provisional votes on his favor, too tight to declare a winner.

A moment that for the Broad Front candidate Daniel Martinez, meant hope. He won the first round of the election and was seeking a fourth term for the center-left party.

This is the first time ever, according to Uruguay’s electoral court, that the winning presidential candidate cannot be known. That is because the difference of votes and those votes need to be verified, that final results will only be announced by the end of the week.