Until the 1994 general election, all the elective posts were voted on the same day, and there were multiple presidential candidacies in every party (the so-called Ley de Lemas). Starting in 1999, mid-year primary elections were held at the beginning of the electoral cycle, in order to elect single presidential candidates for every party. General elections for both the president and the General Assembly are held in October. If no presidential candidate scores at least 50% of all votes cast, a second round of voting is held in November. Finally, in May of the following year, there are municipal elections.[2]
On 26 October 2014, alongside the general election, Uruguay held a constitutional referendum on a proposed amendment to article 43 of the Constitution, lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16. In the end, this proposal narrowly failed its approval.
