Uruguay holds first round general election

While Uruguayans vote in Sunday's first round of presidential elections, the country's domestic politics, contracting with seismic political shifts in the region, shows stability, partly owing to its moderate election candidates.

With Uruguay's conservative president Luis Lacalle Pou stepping down after his term, Yamandu Orsi, a 57-year-old former teacher from the center-left coalition Frente Amplio, is the frontrunner, according to recent polls. Orsi's campaign received a boost from the support of former President Jose Pepe Mujica.

President Lacalle Pou's former cabinet chief, 55-year-old Alvaro Delgado from the National Party, is in the second place, promising continuity of the current government's policies. Colorado Party presidential candidate Andres Ojeda ranked third.

Despite regional political disturbance, the country shows stability amid election, which, according to political analyst Mauro Casa, is due to a social consensus against radicalization.

"Uruguayan people look at the region with a lot of concern about radicalization in public speech and things like that. So, I wouldn't say that we are vaccinated against all of that. It could happen at some time. But nowadays there is no a context of crisis or there is no, like a social, revolt against a politician. So fortunately it's not going to be the case this time," said Casa.

Parallel to the election, two plebiscites are taking place, addressing the allowance of night-time police raids to combat crime, and a pension reform to reduce retirement age. Uruguayan people showed passion over those social and economic issues, which watered down the presidential debate, according to Eduardo Bottinelli, director of Factum, an institution for political analysis and public opinion research.

"Besides social security issues, there are other important issues that worry the population, such as economic concerns like unemployment and low wages. Debate over the social security plebiscite took up a lot of time in the campaign and diverted attention from other issues that might impact the ruling party," said Bottinelli.

If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of Sunday's vote, a runoff election will be held on Nov 24 to make final decisions.

Uruguay holds first round general election

Uruguay holds first round general election

The Montreux Jazz Festival China opened on the shore of Jinji Lake in Suzhou on Friday, providing an audio-visual feast to jazz fans that flocked there and bridging the cultural exchange between the East and the West.

This is the third time for the event to be held in China, with this edition themed "When West Meets East".

Upward of 100 Chinese and foreign musicians staged more than 20 performances during the three-day event, covering various music styles such as jazz, rock, electronic music, and pop, creating a cultural feast for the audience.

"It's great to discover a small part of China, because in three days -- I won't see a lot, but I really like to see how Chinese people are enjoying music. Yesterday evening during the concert of 'Earth, Wind and Fire', everyone was dancing. It was really lively , and really nice to enjoy this music together. Through music, we can understand each other. Sometimes it's very difficult to understand each other through the languages, and also sometimes with cultural gap. But through music we gather everyone around the emotions and the pleasure to share this kind of moment. This is why we promote the cultural exchange, in Montreux in Switzerland and also here, of course, in Suzhou. So we are very happy, and we hope to, maybe, welcome emerging musicians from China in Montreux," said Viviane Rychner Raouf, secretary general of Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation.

The concert "Earth, Wind and Fire Experience" mentioned by Raouf was given by Al McKay, one of the world's best Rhythm and Blues groups, and it provided a swing party to spectators.

Swiss music promoter Claude Nobs, who died in 2013, founded the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1967 and built it into an international festival and event platform for music lovers.

Since its creation, the festival under its slogan "Where Legends Are Born" has seen many iconic live music performances.

World-renowned music festival held in Suzhou