Thousands of Uruguayans who live in Argentina were heading to their home country to vote in tomorrow's presidential elections.

José Mujica, a former Tupamaro leftist guerrilla who is currently a Senator for the government's Broad Front, is expected to win by a wide margin. But it is still uncertain whether he will able to gather the necessary votes to avoid a runoff against former centre-right president Luis Lacalle.

Reports say about 20,000 Uruguayans living in this country are leaving today and tomorrow from the terminals of the port in Buenos Aires.

Three bridges link Uruguay and Argentina, but the main one, Puente San Martín, has remained blocked for almost three years by ecologists demanding that Uruguay order the relocation of a paper mill of Finnish company Botnia in Fray Bentos. The other two bridges, Colón-Paysandú and Concordia-Salto remain open.

About a half of the 600,000 Uruguayans living outside the country live in Argentina, and 40,000 of them are allowed to vote. The Uruguayan electorate has only 2.5 million voters.