Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri lost seats in the election. Photos / AP
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri lost seats in the election. Photos / AP
Lebanon's Hizbollah paramilitary movement emerged as the main victor in the country's first election in almost a decade, securing veto power in the Lebanese Parliament as the prime minister's fortunes fell.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Iran-backed Hizbollah and its parliamentary allies won more than a third of the 128 seats, which would leave them as a dominant force in the Lebanese legislature.
The party of Sunni Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri lost a third of its seats, although he was expected to retain his position. Machnouk said a final breakdown of the nationwide results would be released later.
The vote - the first of its kind in nine years - had been hotly anticipated. Television stations aired extensive coverage, and billboards of the candidates' faces loomed high above the streets of Beirut.
Lebanon has long been beset by corruption and division, and the election results were widely expected. But experts said they built on the regional trends that have buffeted the tiny country as next-door Syria is consumed by war.
"Everyone expected that the outcome in Syria would set the trajectory of politics in Lebanon, and that is essentially what has been happening since 2016," said Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Seven years into the conflict, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has essentially secured victory with the support of Iran and Russia, while his major opponents in the Arab states of the Gulf have ended their calls for regime change.
A key political player in Lebanon, Hizbollah has been also been one of the Assad Government's major allies, sending thousands of fighters to battle Syrian rebels and Isis. In a televised address, the movement's leader, Hasan Nasrallah, hailed its electoral success as a "political and moral victory".
The vote was governed by a complex new electoral law intended to bring in new political players while preserving Lebanon's sect-based political system.
1/ First post-election observation in Lebanon: Hariri is the biggest loser. His traditional constituency, dejected by his weakness and angered by his compromises w/ Aoun, chose to stay home instead of voting (esp in Beirut).
— Emile Hokayem اميل الحكيّم (@emile_hokayem) May 7, 2018
For many voters, it proved confusing. Inside a polling booth in the Hizbollah-dominated Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a steady stream of people approached volunteers to ask how they were meant to cast their ballots. Craning his neck to read a party list, an elderly man insisted that he just wanted to vote for one candidate, Ali Ammar.
"No, no. You have to vote for the candidate and the list. It's very simple," replied one volunteer. His questioner did not look convinced.
Election monitors from the Washington, DC-based National Democratic Institute said they recorded inconsistencies but that polling officials and security forces had done their jobs with "admirable professionalism, compassion and pride".
Official figures put turnout at around 50 per cent, down from previous elections, and many who had stayed away cited disillusionment at the prospects for change.
The election marked the first serious foray by civil society groups into the electoral sphere, with independent candidates running as part of a campaign known as Kulna Watani, or We Are All the Nation. Ultimately, the movement won only one seat, electing well-known television personality Paula Yacoubian.
Paula Yacoubian won running on an independent list.
