DURING his career as a cocaworkers' leader, Evo Morales took part in hunger strikes on 18 occasions. Then he was elected as Bolivia's president. So it came as a surprise when just before Easter he unrolled his mattress on the floor of an ornate state room in the presidential palace and began a five-day political fast, fortified by chewing coca leaves. This time the object of his gesture was not to change government policy but to implement it.

In January Mr Morales won a referendum approving a new constitution inspired by his Movement to Socialism (MAS). This calls for a fresh election on December 6th, in which the president hopes to win a second term. But the opposition, which controls the Senate, was holding up the requisite electoral law, because the government refused to agree to a new electoral register.

The need for this was stressed by a European Union mission which observed the referendum. The opposition fears that a government programme to give identity cards to Bolivians who lack them was abused to swell the government's vote in rural areas. When the president of the electoral court said there was no time to organise a new register, the opposition walked out, leaving Congress inquorate, and prompting Mr Morales to begin his fast.

Reuters

President and protester-in-chief

But it was the government, not the opposition, which gave ground. The court decided that a new electoral roll with biometric data could indeed be ready in time. The government agreed to find the $35m this may cost. For the first time it will include many of the 2m Bolivians who have migrated abroad.

The government retreated, too, on earlier talk of earmarking up to three dozen seats in the new, 121-seat lower house of Congress for candidates of indigenous descent, to be chosen in special electoral districts. It was unclear whether this would allow certain Bolivians to vote twice. Even some in the MAS had reservations. There will now be only seven such seats.

Mr Morales remains popular, thanks to his championing of indigenous Bolivians and his nationalisation of the natural-gas industry, which has boosted the government's finances. He seems assured of a second term. But the opposition reckons that in a fair vote it will deprive him of a strong majority in the new Congress. Despite Mr Morales's hunger strike, its prospects of doing so have improved.