Uruguay's Presidential election: Conservative Luis Lacalle Pou has led opinion polls against rival Daniel Martinez

Uruguay's voters are heading to the polls in a Presidential election that appears likely to sweep the right-leaning opposition into power and end the centre-left's 15-year rule.

In the lead-up to Sunday's vote, conservative opposition candidate Luis Lacalle Pou led the opinion polls against ruling party candidate Daniel Martinez after striking key coalition deals.

Those alliances with mostly Conservative parties might prove key-Lacalle Pou came second in the October 27 poll with around 29 per cent of the vote, behind Martinez's Broad Front with 39 per cent.

As many as 2.6 million voters are eligible to vote. The polling stations will open at 08:00 Am (11:00 GMT) and close at 19:30 (22:30 GMT).

The next president will take office in March for five years.

Since it broke a decades-long conservative stranglehold in 2005, a coalition of leftist movements can point to a record of progressive government.

Uruguay stood out internationally by approving abortion and gay marriage, as well as pioneering the legalisation of cannabis in 2013.

But Lacalle Pau has thumped into voter concerns over the nation's elevated tax rates, promising to look elsewhere to raise the $900m needed to reduce the public deficit, nearly five per cent of GDP.