Voters went to the polls in south Lebanon yesterday where Syria’s staunchest allies Hizbollah and Amal were set to triumph in the first general elections since Syrian troops left the country. Many in the Shi’te Muslim heartland see a ballot for Hizbollah as a vote for allowing the group to keep its weapons as resistance against neighbouring Israel which occupied the south for 22 years. “I voted for Hizbollah and Amal because they protect us and stand in the face of the Israelis and Americans”, Hussein Awada, leaving a polling station in the port city of Tyre, said.

Staunchly anti-Israel Hizbollah, which Washington labels a “terrorist” group, and the more moderate Amal are the dominant forces among the Shi’ites, Lebanon’s largest sect. But voting got off to a slow start as the Amal-Hizbollah alliance, dubbed the “steamroller”, has already won six of the 23 seats in the south by default due to a lack of challengers.

Damascus backed both groups during and after the 1975-1990 civil war, and Shi’ites largely stayed away from anti-Syrian street protests that swept Beirut after the Feb. 14 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. Those protests, which united Christians, Sunnis and Druze, forced Syria to bow to world pressure and end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April.

The general elections are spread over four weekends by region, with the south divided into two large constituencies. Opposition factions are expected to win in most parts of Lebanon, buoyed by public sympathy over Hariri’s death and by his son Saad’s landslide in the first round in Beirut last week.

But the key issue in the south is different. The controversial question of disarming Hizbollah, as demanded by a UN Security Council resolution, is probably the biggest challenge the next parliament will face.

“Voters are bullets”

Banners in many southern towns urged voters to choose the Amal-Hizbollah list as a rejection of international pressure to disarm the guerrilla group, whose attacks were instrumental in driving Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000. “Your vote is resistance”, read a banner in the largely Sunni Muslim port city of Sidon, where both seats had already been won by default. “Your vote is a bullet in the enemy’s chest”, read another.

Some Christian opposition politicians have called for an election boycott, complaining that the shape of the districts makes it hard to challenge the Amal-Hizbollah “steamroller”. Turnout appeared low in Christian areas but higher among Shi’ites. Hizbollah and Amal supporters clad in the groups’ yellow and green colours drove around some towns blaring patriotic songs and canvassing votes.

“Only the resistance freed us from Israel”, said Samira Mezher, 60, voting in the Shi’ite market town of Nabatiyeh. “I am voting for them because without them we are worthless.”

The turnout in south Lebanon, where 675,000 people are eligible to vote, will be watched closely. Only 28 percent of voters turned out in Beirut, many people saying there was little point in casting a ballot when Saad al-Hariri’s list was almost certain to win.

An Amal-Hizbollah alliance won a landslide in the south in the 2000 general election, riding a wave of euphoria and support only months after Israel ended its occupation.

Hizbollah has 12 members in the present 128-seat assembly. But the opposition, expected to win a majority in the next parliament, is split over the issue of Hizbollah’s weapons. Some say it is time the guerrilla group laid down its arms, but Hizbollah has vowed to fight any effort to disarm it.

The polls took place despite the killing on Thursday of anti-Syrian journalist Samir Kassir which rattled the country and sparked renewed calls for the departure of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

Many say Lahoud’s fate is among the first issues the new parliament will tackle after elections end on June 19.

Hussein SAAD

FACTS AND FIGURES

How Lebanon’s voting system works

■ Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, phased over four weekends by region, moved to southern Lebanon yesterday. The May 29-June 19 polls are the first in 30 years without Syrian troops there. Following are key facts about the vote:

■ 3 000 000 Lebanese aged over 21 are eligible to vote for the 128-member Parliament.

■ Under a complex power-sharing system, adjusted by the Taif agreement that ended the 1975-90 civil war, seats are divided equally between Muslims and Christians. The largest number goes to Maronite Christians with 34 seats, while Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims have 27 each. The rest are divided among other sects.

■ Muslims form 58.7 percent of the electorate while Christians make up 41.3 percent.

■ Lebanon is split into 14 mostly multi-sectarian constituencies that return varying numbers of deputies under a controversial law adopted for the last election in 2000.

■ Each voter can vote for one candidate per seat in his or her constituency and can vote for candidates in any number of seats in the constituency.

■ Members of Lebanon’s large diaspora can vote only if they return from abroad to do so.

■ Voting took place in Beirut (19 seats) on May 29. The south (23 seats) was voting on June 5, Mount (central) Lebanon (35 seats) on June 12, and the north (28 seats) and east (23 seats) on June 19.