Preliminary unofficial results show that in-country voter turnout in the Lebanese parliamentary election reached 41.04 percent, with the final make-up of the 128-member parliament expected to emerge soon.
The turnout figure is lower than the 49 percent seen in the 2018 parliamentary election.
While votes are still being counted, initial results show that nine candidates of the electoral list titled Hope and Loyalty, which was announced by the alliance between Hezbollah and Amal, in addition to other parties, won a majority of votes in Baalbek-Hermel.
Supporters of the resistance movements took to the streets of the city to celebrate the news after the preliminary results came out.
Meanwhile, the Maronite seat in Baalbek-Hermel was won by the Lebanese Forces (LF) candidate, Antoine Habashi.
The LF party was previously a militia group that emerged from the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990).
Reuters cited Antoinette Geagea, the head of the press office of the LF, as saying that the party won at least 20 seats, up from 15 in 2018.
The reported gains means the LF could overtake the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), which is founded by President Michel Aoun, as the biggest Christian party in parliament.
Sayed Younes, the head of its electoral committee told Reuters that the FPM won up to 16 seats, down from 18 in 2018.
In Nabatieh City, three candidates of Hope and Loyalty won a majority of votes.
The vote came as the country has been rocked by an economic meltdown that the World Bank has blamed on the ruling class and the 2020 devastating port blast in the capital, Beirut.
The economic crisis, which began in 2019, led to a currency collapse of some 95 percent and the plunging of more than 80 percent of the Lebanese population into poverty.
Lebanon’s parliament is by law equally divided between Christians and Muslims
The last vote in 2018 saw Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, its allies in the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the Shia-majority Amal party of Speaker Nabih Berri, secure a majority by winning 71 of the seats.
Source: Press TV
