BUDAPEST, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany began a week-long hunger strike Sunday to protest against a government shake-up of the electoral system which he says could deprive many people of their vote.

Gyurcsany, who was the country's prime minister between 2004 and 2009 and now leads an opposition party Democratic Coalition said the draft electoral law, which includes a requirement for voters to register themselves in advance in order to vote, could prevent "hundreds of thousands or even millions" of people from voting in elections.

Opponents of the proposal fear that voter turnout at elections will be significantly reduced by the registration requirement, an outcome which could favor the conservative government coalition led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party at the next election in spring 2014.

"It is unacceptable that anyone who decides only 2 days before an election that he wants to vote cannot do so and take part in the election," Gyurcsany said in a TV interview.

The government, however, said the new law will streamline a system which had required some voters to register, for examples Hungarians living around the world and members of national minorities within Hungary, while others did not have to.

"Such a hybrid system is unsustainable," Antal Rogan, leader of the Fidesz parliamentary party, told a press conference on Friday.

Gyurcsany and three party colleagues joining the strike, Peter Niedermuller, Csaba Molnar and Istvan Kolber, began occupying tents outside the parliament building in Budapest late on Sunday.

The former prime minister said he hoped that others would join the strikers in their self-styled "7 days for free elections" demonstration.

"A dramatic situation requires a dramatic response to move the masses of voters out of apathy," he said. Enditem

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