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Source: Reuters -
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Bolivia's Congress approved a controversial electoral law after leftist President Evo Morales went on a hunger strike for nearly five days to protest against opposition lawmakers blocking the bill.
The law sets presidential and congressional elections for December 6, assigns a small number of congressional seats to poor, indigenous areas where Morales is popular and allows Bolivian expatriates to vote for the first time.
Opposition leaders had objected, claiming the bill would unfairly give the government an electoral advantage.
Recent polls suggest that Morales, the country's first Indian president and a fierce critic of Washington, will likely win re-election.
Morales slept for five nights on a mattress on the floor of the presidential palace surrounded by supporters, refusing to eat and hoping to prod Congress into voting. State media reported that he lost nearly 4 kilos.
"President Morales is happy about the victory and has stopped his hunger strike," presidential spokesman Ivan Canelas said after the vote.
The ruling Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party had enough votes in Congress to pass the law, but conservative lawmakers blocked it for nearly a week by refusing to attend a special bicameral session and preventing a quorum.
The MAS controls the lower chamber, but opposition parties have used their slim majority in the Senate to block dozens of government-proposed reforms.
The government was able to win approval after Morales ordered officials to compile a new electoral register, defusing tensions with opposition leaders who had said that he could exploit "flaws" in the existing census to rig the vote.
In another concession to the opposition, Morales reduced the number of seats in Congress to be assigned to minority indigenous groups from 14 to 7.
Morales has nationalized energy, telecommunications companies and has increased social spending, using some of extra revenues the state now makes to fund social programs.
The cornerstone of his pro-indigenous and leftist policies is a new constitution, which was approved in a referendum in January with more than 60% support.
In his three years in office Morales has not been able to heal a deep racial and geographical divide between the Andean west, where Aymara and Quechua Indians revere him, and the east where mixed-race people largely support his rivals.
However, he won sweeping victories in a recall vote in August and the constitutional referendum in January, thanks chiefly to strong support from Indians, who make up around 60 percent of the population.
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