Consensus between rival parties on a hybrid electoral draft-law was on Wednesday not looming on the horizon after reports said that Hizbullah rejected it and talks between March 14 opposition officials and the Progressive Socialist Party slowed.

Hizbullah informed Speaker Nabih Berri that it rejected the hybrid proposal, which a team of experts and MPs from the opposition al-Mustaqbal movement and the centrist Progressive Socialist Party are seeking to draft, al-Liwaa daily reported.

Consultations between Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on a hybrid electoral draft-law have reached a dead end over pressure exerted by the speaker's allies in the March 8 majority alliance, PSP sources said Tuesday.

The sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that Berri suggested instead a draft-law that considers Lebanon a single district after coming under pressure by Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat revealed on Monday that the party is keen to reach an agreement among all political parties on a new electoral law.

He said in his weekly editorial to the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “We are seeking an agreement on an electoral law that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems in order to avert the postponement of the elections.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat hoped on Monday that the country's major rival parties would agree on a hybrid electoral draft-law to govern the June parliamentary polls.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Jumblat said: “There are consultations in different directions. The opposition al-Mustaqbal bloc is in contact with the Lebanese Forces and I am in contact with Speaker (Nabih) Berri.”

Speaker Nabih Berri is hopeful that rival parliamentary blocs would find an alternative to the 1960 electoral law and the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal by agreeing on a hybrid draft-law.

“Don't be afraid of the time factor. We still have three and a half months until the elections are held on June 9 and I believe there is enough time to agree on a new law if all the parties are willing to reach consensus,” officials, who visited Berri, quoted him as saying.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel issued an order on Friday for nominees wishing to run in the parliamentary elections to submit their candidacies.

The nominees should submit their request at the Interior Ministry headquarters in Beirut between March 11 and April 10.

Head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea stressed on Wednesday the need to hold the parliamentary elections on time, announced the LF in a statement Thursday.

It said that the two officials agreed that the “best electoral law at the moment is a hybrid law” that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems.

National Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblat assured that he will not wage the parliamentary elections under the controversial Orthodox Gathering draft-law, assuring that it's better for political parties to agree on a law that pleases all parties, the pan Arab Asharq al-Awsat daily reported Thursday.

In an interview with the daily, Jumblat disagreed with sayings that the Christian politicians in Lebanon made an unprecedented stance uniting on the Orthodox draft-law.

A hybrid draft-law that the March 14 opposition alliance and the Progressive Socialist Party have agreed on allows the elections to take place in 26 districts based on the winner-takes-all system and 9 governorates based on proportionality, sources said Thursday.

Informed political and al-Mustaqbal bloc sources told several newspapers that the hybrid formula will be announced within the coming days.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said after meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri that “no elections will be held until consensus over an electoral law is reached”.

"Berri assured that no elections will take place if no agreement is reached,” Jumblat said after his talks with the speaker in Ain al-Tineh.