December 7, 2009 7:24 AM
- Text
Bolivian President Ends Hunger Strike
(CBS/AP)
President Evo Morales has ended a five-day hunger strike after Bolivia's congress approved a law that sets a December date for general elections.
The new law will allow Bolivia's first indigenous president to stand for re-election, though Morales has not formally announced his candidacy.
Morales and close associates began fasting last Thursday, accusing rivals in the opposition-controlled Senate of playing politics by holding up passage of the election law.
The law was approved at 4 a.m. on Tuesday. It sets new standards for voter registration, gives minority indigenous groups eight seats in the new congress to be chose in the Dec. 6 vote, and allows Bolivians living abroad to participate in the elections.
Fourteen leaders of labor and social groups had joined the president on the hunger strike.
"What we want to achieve through this hunger strike is that they comply with the decisions of the people," Morales said last week. "That is my obligation, to make [Congress] comply with the mandate of the people - that's why we are on a hunger strike."
The group had not said how strict their fasting would be, but previous protests in Bolivia usually involve drinking water and chewing coca leave, which help ward off hunger pangs. (Morales rose to prominence as leader of a coca-growers' union.)
Morales is considered a favorite to win re-election over a fractured opposition.
The socialist president, who took office in 2006, had suggested opposition leaders were trying to block the planned December elections with delaying tactics.
(Supporters of Bolivia's President Evo Morales gather in La Paz, Tuesday, April 14, 2009.)
The election bill has been held up by demands for an updated voter registry, by arguments over whether Bolivians living outside the country should be able to vote, and over a dispute about the number of seats in Congress that should be assigned to indigenous groups.
Under the new constitution that took effect in January and aims to further empower Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority, Congress was supposed to enact the elections law by Thursday, but a joint session of between the Congress and the Senate to try and reconcile their differences broke down.
The new law will allow Bolivia's first indigenous president to stand for re-election, though Morales has not formally announced his candidacy.
Morales and close associates began fasting last Thursday, accusing rivals in the opposition-controlled Senate of playing politics by holding up passage of the election law.
The law was approved at 4 a.m. on Tuesday. It sets new standards for voter registration, gives minority indigenous groups eight seats in the new congress to be chose in the Dec. 6 vote, and allows Bolivians living abroad to participate in the elections.
Fourteen leaders of labor and social groups had joined the president on the hunger strike.
"What we want to achieve through this hunger strike is that they comply with the decisions of the people," Morales said last week. "That is my obligation, to make [Congress] comply with the mandate of the people - that's why we are on a hunger strike."
The group had not said how strict their fasting would be, but previous protests in Bolivia usually involve drinking water and chewing coca leave, which help ward off hunger pangs. (Morales rose to prominence as leader of a coca-growers' union.)
Morales is considered a favorite to win re-election over a fractured opposition.
The socialist president, who took office in 2006, had suggested opposition leaders were trying to block the planned December elections with delaying tactics.
(AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)
The election bill has been held up by demands for an updated voter registry, by arguments over whether Bolivians living outside the country should be able to vote, and over a dispute about the number of seats in Congress that should be assigned to indigenous groups.
Under the new constitution that took effect in January and aims to further empower Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority, Congress was supposed to enact the elections law by Thursday, but a joint session of between the Congress and the Senate to try and reconcile their differences broke down.
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