The Iran-backed Shia group Hezbollah and its political allies looked set to win more than half the seats in Lebanon's first parliamentary election in nine years, according to preliminary results cited by politicians and Lebanese media. The unofficial results also indicated that Western-backed Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri would emerge as the Sunni leader with the biggest bloc in the 128-seat parliament, making him the frontrunner to form the next government, though he lost seats. Hezbollah-backed Sunnis did well in the cities of Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, strongholds of Hariri's Future Movement, the unofficial results showed. But Hezbollah lost ground in one of its strongholds, the Baalbek-Hermel constituency, where it lost two of 10 seats, one of them to Lebanese Forces. Hezbollah-backed winners include Jamil al-Sayyed, a retired general and former Lebanese intelligence chief who is a close friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to the unofficial results.

Source: dna May 07, 2018 02:23 UTC