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Until this early morning, the official results of the Lebanese parliamentary elections were not issued yet. However, the semi-final, unofficial results of the first ballot result according to the new proportional system gave a good indicator of the next parliament.

In the country’s first parliamentary elections in nine years with all eyes focused on the electoral battle between a Shia alliance backed by the axis of Resistance and PM Saad Hariri’s party backed by Saudi Arabia and western regimes.

Voter turnout however was lower than in past Lebanese parliamentary elections, a provisional turnout figure of 49.2 percent was given by Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, lower than the 54 percent of voters who cast a ballot in 2009. Turnout was particularly low in the Christian-dominated areas such as the Beirut I district, which includes Ashrafieh.

With more than 500 candidates were running for 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament, Lebanon's political divide seems now to have emerged after the polls. The staunchly anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, emerged a big winner, nearly doubling its members of Parliament to 15 from eight, according to the unofficial indications.

Hezbollah and groups and individuals allied to it secured at least 67 seats, according to preliminary results for nearly all the seats that were obtained from politicians and campaigns and reported in Lebanese media.

Hezbollah's allies include the Shiite Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the Christian Free Patriotic Movement established by President Michel Aoun and other groups and individuals that view its strength against Israel and the Takfiri terrorists as an asset to Lebanon. Hezbollah-backed Sunnis did well in the cities of Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, strongholds of Mr Hariri's Future Movement, the unofficial results showed.

The party songs that filled the villages of Nabatiyeh to Bint Jbeil, yesterday afternoon, were the first indication of the outcome of the electoral process in the third district of the South (Nabatiyeh, Bint Jbeil and Hasbayya Marjayoun). It was a clear referendum to renew allegiance to the resistance and its strategy for Lebanon and the region.

In Nabatiyeh, where 148,000 voters hit the polls, the voting rate was 55.88% where the elections were an "electoral race" to celebrate the "hope and loyalty" list of Hezbollah and Amal movement alliance. Likewise, the South’s second and third districts’ 18 candidates went strictly to the Hezbollah-Amal alliance candidates.

Fifty percent of the 62,612 voters in the city of Sidon rushed to the polls for the election of two vice-Sunni MPs out of 7 candidates: Bahia Hariri, Usama Saad, Abdul Rahman al-Bizri, Bassam Hamoud, Samir al-Bizri, Hasan Shamsuddin and Abdul Qadir al-Bassat. However, after nine years of successive defeats and disruptions of the Future Movement and its allies, at home and abroad, the Sidonians cut back the amount of votes they gave to Hariri and Siniora earlier, in return for growth in the popular situation of candidate Saad which dramatically reduced the difference between the two teams in favor of Usama Saad, which back in 2009 was more than 12,000 votes for Hariri.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the Future Movement received the biggest blow in his history. He can no longer talk about monopolizing Sunni representation in the country and monopolizing the representation of big cities, nor about leading the political team of the US-Saudi axis in Lebanon. What Hariri lost in Arqoub, Sidon, Mount Lebanon, Beirut, Tripoli, Zahle and the western Bekaa, will not be offset by the results of Akkar.

Hariri's loss marked the milestone in this election, which will have repercussions on the battle to form the new government, especially those who won in front of him are prominent regional and national figures, from Osama Saad and Abdul Rahim Murad to Faisal Karami and Najib Miqati. As is the case with the loss of non-Sunni seats with him. Hariri will therefore be the first to demand a comprehensive review of the elections. Until that happens, the sectarian and sectarian mobilization that his movement has waged over the last two days will change reality on the ground. Hariri now is obliged to acknowledge the results and act on the basis that the image of Lebanon is very different from the prior to Sunday’s polls.

As for Beirut second district, the Future Movement looked to retain six of the possible 11 seats. A Hezbollah-Amal Movement backed list took a surprising four seats – two Shiite, one Sunni and one Protestant seat. Millionaire businessman Fouad Makhzoumi is said to have won the remaining Sunni seat.

The remnants of the March 14, from Christian figures and smaller parties, from the south to the mountain, the north, Beirut and the Bekaa suffered a total loss, a knockout to be exact. The most important conclusion is that the prominent forces of the March 14 team abandoned them, and their external support did not bring the required wins.

The Lebanese Forces however achieved a great victory. They are approaching a net bloc of 15 seats and have received clear representation in at least 13 districts. A representation that will take root more in the coming period. It will be difficult for the Free Patriotic Movement, like Prime Minister Hariri, to bypass the Lebanese Forces when a government is formed, and the forces can form alliances that will allow them to gain access to new places in the country. But it will require from them a different political rhetoric and behavior.

In northern Lebanon specifically in Tripoli, Future Movement has retained five seats, former Prime Minister Najib Mikati with four and Faisal Karami with two seats.

Meanwhile, Walid Jumblat and his Progressive Socialist Party bypassed the threat of the former’s leadership. He showed dramatic superiority, so that neither his traditional rivals nor the newcomers could offer an effective alternative. He also maintained his influence outside his sect, keeping his share of the Sunni and Christian seats. He has been able to promote important alliances with President Nabih Berri as well as with Hezbollah, which will have a major impact on his alliances in the upcoming phase.

In Baabda, the six seats were divided between two for Free Patriotic Movement, one to the Lebanese Forces, one to Hezbollah, one to Amal and the one to Progressive Socialist Party.

Kesrouan-Jbeil saw the Free Patriotic Movement take five seats and Ziad Hawat win the Maronite seat in Jbeil. The Shiite seat in Jbeil was still up for grabs between the Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanese Forces but Hezbollah’s candidate seems to be out of the race.

What is certain is that the preliminary results of the new elections shows that resistance group Hezbollah and its political allies looked set to win more than half the seats in Lebanon's first parliamentary election in nine years. The result, if confirmed by the final count, would boost Hezbollah politically, with parties and individuals aligned with the heavily armed resistance fighters securing a majority in Parliament in Sunday's election.

Hezbollah's powerful position in Lebanon reflects the regional axis of resistance‘s ascendancy through Iran, Iraq and Syria all the way to Beirut. While unlawfully classified as a terrorist group by the United States and an enemy of the Zionist Israeli entity, Sunday’s turnout showed 49.2 per cent in Lebanon, more than half of which pledging allegiance to the choice of Hezbollah in the parliament just as they do on the secured borderlines of their country.