Voters in the small South American nation of Uruguay cast ballots Sunday in a presidential election in which a center-left rural mayor pulled firmly ahead of the conservative incumbent-party candidate,

Voters in the small South American nation of Uruguay waited anxiously on Sunday for the results of their presidential election as exit polls showed the country's

But unlike sharp right-left divides in Argentina, Brazil or Mexico, Uruguay's political arena is relatively tension-free, with significant overlap between the major conservative and liberal coalitions taking some of the sting out of the result.