Lebanon's main anti-Syrian alliance leader Saad Hariri yesterday claimed victory in the decisive final round of elections in the north, a success that would give the opposition a majority in parliament.
"The final results show that the people said their word ... they want the change and they will get it," Hariri, the son of assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, told reporters yesterday.
Sources close to Hariri told reporters late Sunday that initial results were showing that they had scored a majority in the new parliament.
"We are set for the majority in the new parliament," the sources said.
The streets next to the Hariri Palace in the capital Beirut were filled with supporters until the early hours of the morning shouting "God is great, Hariri has won."
Druze warlord Walid Jumblatt, a close ally of Hariri, told reporters that "we have won and we have put [exiled General Michel] Aoun and his pro-Syrian supporters in the corner."
For his part, Aoun's pro-Syrian ally Suleiman Franjiyeh admitted defeat and said "even if we lost, we are the real representatives of the Christian areas in northern Lebanon."
Jumblatt referring to Franjiyeh's statement, said: "He should accept the defeat and stop speaking in a sectarian language ... the moderate Christians and Muslims have won against the hardliners."
If confirmed by official results yesterday, the outcome would mark a major coup for the anti-Syrian alliance in the country. This outcome would give Hariri, 35, the opportunity to become prime minister.
But his party would fall short of the two-thirds majority needed to change the Constitution to cut short the term of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, who has more than two years left in his term.
The four-round elections were the first since neighboring Syria ended on April 29 its three-decades troop presence amid the turmoil following the Feb. 14 assassination of Rafik Hariri.
The turnout in the last and final round of the parliamentary elections Sunday increased to 48 percent, compared to 40 percent in the previous elections in 2000, according to election experts.
In the towns and villages with a Sunni Muslim majority, such as Tripoli, the turnout reached 42 percent compared to 40 percent in 2000. The participation in areas with a Christian majority was even higher.
Some 700,000 eligible voters in two northern constituencies headed to the polls Sunday to choose 13 Muslim deputies and 15 Christians, the last 28 deputies out of the 128-member parliament.
The list of Saad Hariri needed to win as many as 21 seats to be sure of controlling the legislature.
Opposing him was an unlikely alliance between Christian hardliner and General Michel Aoun and a raft of prominent politicians loyal to Syria.
In the outgoing parliament, the majority of deputies were pro-Syrian.
Shortly after the initial results were released, Aoun said Hariri "bought the people's votes" but said he would "fight back" in parliament.
According to Lebanon's Constitution, the president should be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the house speaker a Shiite Muslim.
Caretaker Prime Minister Nagib Mikati, whose term will end on today, told reporters that the four-stage election had been held with "great transparency and freedom and without any security breaches."
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