Ex-rebel Mujica leads Uruguay vote, faces run-off

By Kevin Gray

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Former left-wing guerrilla leader Jose Mujica was leading Uruguay's presidential vote on Sunday, but was just short of an outright first-round victory, an exit poll showed.

Factum polling company said Mujica had between 47 percent and 49 percent of the vote while center-right opposition candidate and former President Luis Lacalle trailed with between 29 percent and 31 percent.

Mujica, a senator from the ruling Broad Front leftist coalition, needs to win more than half the vote to avoid a run-off with Lacalle.

Pre-election polls had showed Mujica, 74, a plain-talking senator who fought with the Tupamaros movement during the 1960s and early 1970s, easily finishing first but going to a second round.

Lacalle, who held office from 1990 to 1995, has sought to capitalize on some voter resistance to Mujica's militant past.

The winner will replace President Tabare Vazquez, Uruguay's first socialist leader, who leaves office highly popular after five years of vigorous economic expansion in the small, beef-exporting country between Brazil and Argentina.

Mujica is competing for the presidency as part of the ruling party Broad Front coalition, a grouping of socialists and other leftist parties that came to power four years ago in South America's regionwide political shift to the left.

Some Uruguayan business leaders worry Mujica could veer Uruguay more sharply to the left even though he has pledged to stay on a free-market track.

Mujica has sought to temper the concerns about his days as a guerrilla. "We're all in the same boat," he said after voting on Sunday.

Uruguay, like Chile and Brazil, has become a model of stability and moderate leftism in Latin America, as other countries have elected more radical leaders.

(Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Cynthia Osterman)