A Lebanese anti-Syrian alliance promised sweeping change yesterday after winning control of parliament in the first elections in three decades without Syrian troops in Lebanon. An unofficial count for north Lebanon on Sunday night showed an alliance led by Saad al-Hariri sweeping all remaining 28 seats, while its rivals conceded they were heading for defeat.

The ballot, staggered by region over four weekends, is the first in three decades with no Syrian military presence after Damascus pulled its troops out in April. “Final results show that we are ahead and show that the people have voted for change,” said Hariri, the son of slain ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri who is backing the opposition slate. “It was not possible that after the martyrdom of Rafik al-Hariri, the withdrawal of Syria, that nothing would change.” The victory means the 128-seat assembly has an anti-Syrian majority for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Pro-Syrian Christian former minister Suleiman Franjieh conceded he and his candidates headed for defeat in the mainly Sunni Muslim north, though they did well in Christian areas. “What we feared is happening. I think the north has been divided along sectarian lines,” Franjieh told LBC television station. “We have arrived at what we used to warn against.“Beirut newspapers, pointing to a new era after the elections, warned of a sharp rise in sectarianism. «Voting along sectarian lines opens the door for a delicate period in which no one knows how to overcome the sectarian tension that characterised the elections across Lebanon,” as-Safir daily said.The anti-Syrian list squared off against an unlikely alliance of pro-Syrians and Damascus’ erstwhile foe, former general Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian.

Aoun’s victory in the Christian heartland of Mount Lebanon in last week’s round stunned the movement whose street protests following Hariri’s assassination on Feb. 14 forced Syria to bow to global pressure and pull out of Lebanon. Hariri’s bloc has now won 72 seats, an absolute majority, but short of the two-thirds the anti-Syrian front had predicted. Aoun and allies have 21 seats while a pro-Syrian Shi’ite Muslim alliance between Hizbollah and Amal have 35 seats. But it is unlikely the shape of the current blocs will stand the test of the complexities of Lebanese politics and sectarian tensions over the course of parliament’s four-year term. An early indication comes this week when the new assembly meets to elect a speaker, a Shi’ite by tradition.

<B>Nadim LADKI</B>