April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales said he will refuse to eat until opposition members in Congress approve a new electoral law they say could help him secure a second term.

The Bolivian leader and his allies are demanding Congress pass legislation to increase the representation of indigenous communities in the body. The opposition, which controls the Senate, said the changes would also help Morales seize control of both houses in elections this year.

“Facing the negligence of a group of neo-liberal lawmakers, we feel obligated to take up this measure to defend the vote of the people,” Morales said, in remarks broadcast today on La Paz-based Radio Fides.

Minister of Justice Celima Torrico, speaking today on Bolivian state television, said Morales’s Cabinet is considering joining him in the hunger strike.

The bill would redraw electoral boundaries and enhance the voting power of the indigenous communities, who broadly support Morales, an Aymara Indian and a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The government has now set tomorrow as its deadline for bringing the bill to a full congressional vote, Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said today on Bolivian state television.

Senate Changes

A joint session of the legislature is debating the bill today, after the Senate modified the lower house version of the measure. The revisions sought to reduce indigenous seats in Congress and change voting procedures that lawmakers said would invite fraud. The ruling party rejects voting changes, saying they can’t be implemented in time for the December elections.

Morales planned to travel to Cuba tomorrow to meet with President Raul Castro and former President Fidel Castro. He decided today to suspend his trip and remain in La Paz, government spokesman Ivan Canelas said on state television.

“The president is down to his last instrument of coercion,” Senator Walter Guiteras said today on Radio Fides.

Morales’s union allies this week threatened to surround the Congress building with as many as 10,000 supporters to force the approval of the law.

Resignation Threat

Yesterday, lawmakers from his Movement Toward Socialism party said they would resign en masse at midnight, paralyzing the legislative branch, should the opposition continue to balk.

The group said the legislature couldn’t act without a quorum, and that the power to approve laws would be transferred to the executive branch.

The protesters didn’t arrive, and the congressmen stayed in session past the midnight deadline.

Morales said the elections scheduled for Dec. 6 can’t go forward without the new electoral law, and that the opposition is seeking to block him from winning a second five-year term.

The president said lawmakers who sought to block or boycott the December elections were “antidemocratic,” according to remarks made April 7 at a news conference in La Paz.

Morales, Bolivia’s first Indian president, is consolidating his power with a new constitution that gives him greater control of the economy. During his first term, his plans to increase state control over natural resources and utilities companies have been partially checked by a pro-business opposition in the Senate, led by the Democratic Power party, known as Podemos.

Seeking Majority

“Imagine, if we win categorically, we’ll be the majority” in the Senate and lower house, Morales said March 29 in Potosi. “No one will be able to stop the will of the people to approve laws in favor of Bolivians; the majority opposition in the Senate won’t be able to place obstacles.”

About 40 percent of Bolivians say they would vote for Morales in the December elections, according to a February poll by independent La Paz-based pollster Ipsos Apoyo.

Former President Carlos Mesa, who emerged in late 2008 to oppose the new Morales-backed constitution, was the closest challenger with about 8 percent support.

The survey, conducted in Bolivia’s nine provincial capitals, has a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan J. Levin in La Paz at Jlevin20@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 9, 2009 14:01 EDT