BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri has said that any "technical" delay in staging the parliamentary polls would last six months at the most, adding that he will not approve any vote law that promotes sectarianism.

"Until now, there's no agreement on the vote law. The Amal Movement didn't approve the draft law proposed by [Foreign Minister] Gebran Bassil," Berri said in remarks published by several local newspapers Saturday.

Bassil, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, has unveiled a new hybrid vote law proposal in his latest initiative aimed at breaking the months-long deadlock over a new electoral law. The proposal calls for electing half of Parliament’s 128 members under a majoritarian system and the other half under a proportional formula in different districts.

The speaker said that talks were "ongoing to reach a new vote law as the Constitutional deadline to hold the elections starts closing in."

"The new vote law became inevitable," Berri, who is also head of the Amal Movement, said, urging rivals to reach common ground on the controversial matter within a few weeks."

Rivals remain at odds regarding the proper shape that the new voting system will take, which would replace the current 1960 majoritarian system.

Political factions remain deeply divided between the adoption of a proportional vote law and a hybrid law that would combine aspects of proportional and majoritarian voting systems.

Parliamentary elections were originally scheduled to take place between May 21 and June 20, but political deadlock is expected to delay elections beyond June.

Parliament has been extending its term since the summer of 2013.

"We're running out of time," Berri said.

The speaker said that a new extension for the Parliament's mandate is "totally rejected." However, he added that a "technical delay for maximum six months could occur" which would defer the elections until Dec. 20, 2017.

Berri said that the delay would be conditioned by "reaching a new electoral law."

"Once we reach an understanding – within few weeks – we head to the technical extension. ... The condition is to reach an understanding first on the vote law."

A number of officials, including Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk , had said that a “a technical delay” for a few months might occur to prepare for the implementation of a new vote law to replace the 1960 formula used in the 2009 polls.