Bolivian President Goes on Hunger Strike

Bolivian President Evo Morales has said he will refuse to eat until the upper house of parliament, the Senate, passes a new electoral law.

The opposition-controlled Senate is blocking a bill that would give greater political power to Bolivia's indigenous majority, to which Morales belongs, the BBC reported Friday.

Fourteen special indigenous electoral districts would be created in places where Indian groups are in a minority.

The opposition says the bill would help the re-election of Morales. Tensions flared last week when members of the governing party, which controls the lower house, clashed with the opposition over the bill.

A new constitution designed to give more rights and a greater share of the land and resources to the country's indigenous majority was approved by more than 60% of voters in late January.

"Faced with the negligence of a group of neoliberal lawmakers, we have to take this step," Morales told reporters at the presidential palace in La Paz on Thursday. "Now is the best time to force opposition senators in the National Congress to approve the new law."

Members of the presidential cabinet pledged to join Morales in his hunger protest but a palace spokesman ruled out a solidarity strike, to ensure the country continued to function.

Fernando Mesmer, a member of the influential centre-right opposition party Podemos, dismissed the president's hunger strike as "ridiculous".

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