Beirut (Reuters) – A Lebanese anti-Syrian alliance promised sweeping change early on Monday after winning a majority in the first parliamentary elections in three decades without Syrian troops in Lebanon.

An unofficial count for north Lebanon on Sunday night showed an alliance led by Saad al-Hariri sweeping all remaining 28 seats, while its rivals conceded they were heading for defeat.

The ballot, staggered by region over four weekends, is the first in three decades with no Syrian military presence after Damascus pulled its troops out in April.

“Final results show that we are ahead and show that the people have voted for change,” said Hariri, the son of slain ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri who is backing the opposition slate.

“It was not possible that after the martyrdom of Rafik al-Hariri, the withdrawal of Syria, that nothing would change.”

The victory means the 128-seat assembly has an anti-Syrian majority for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) – Azzam al-Jassem delayed casting his ballot in Lebanon’s general elections on Sunday to the last minute, waiting “for whoever pays more” to secure his vote and those of his family.

Taking refuge from a merciless sun with his cousins inside a makeshift kiosk he rented for the elections, Jassem said he had turned down offers ranging between $5,000 and $7,000 for the 100 votes his family commands.

“Buying a goat would cost $100,” he told Reuters. “My vote should not be cheaper than a goat.”

Allegations of vote-buying have marred the last round of Lebanon’s general elections in the north, where more than 100 candidates vie for the remaining 28 parliament seats.

In Lebanon’s first election in three decades without a Syrian military presence, an anti-Syrian list backed by Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri is squaring off against an unlikely alliance of pro-Syrians and Damascus’ erstwhile foe, Maronite Christian former general Michel Aoun.

Both campaigns have denied vote-buying. However, many people Reuters interviewed in the coastal town of Tripoli said campaigners from both slates offered them money for their votes.

June 19 (Bloomberg) — Lebanese voters in the north of the country started voting today in the fourth and final round of parliamentary polls that will determine whether the anti-Syrian or pro-Syrian blocs control the 128-seat house. The vote is the first for Lebanon since Syrian troops pulled out in April after 29 years of […]

Beirut, Lebanon,  (UPI) — Former renegade Lebanese army commander Gen. Michel Aoun emerged from the third round of Lebanon’s general elections as the Christians’ new prominent leader. 

Aoun’s stunning victory in the most crucial round of elections that took place Sunday and the defeat of the existing Christian moderate opposition candidates may well weaken Muslim opposition demands to force President Emile Lahoud out of office.

His followers and other candidates running on his slate won 15 out of 16 seats in the Christian Maronite heartland of North Metn and Kesrouan-Byblos. Pierre Gemayel, son of former President Amin Gemayel, was the only candidate on another list to have also won.

Farid al-Khazen, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said the heavy turnout in Sunday’s elections in North Metn region came as a surprise. He was among the Aoun-backed winning candidates.

According to the Ministry of Interior, the turnout reached 54 percent in Mount Lebanon and 52 percent in eastern Lebanon.

Al-Khazen explained that the Christians, who voted in great numbers, reflected a “grudge and a persisting feeling that they are being targeted.”

“We did not expect such a degree of popular reaction. It was unprecedented,” he told United Press International. “It was the need for a Christian commander who is able to object and confront.”

Aoun, the 72-year-old former army commander and a key player in the last years of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war, returned last month from 15 years of exile in France.

His staunch opposition to Syria’s military presence and interference in Lebanon’s political affairs, his pledge to fight widespread corruption and his opposing stance against religious division, has attracted a growing number of Christians and allowed him to reach out to many Muslims.

After Syria pulled out its troops and intelligence services from Lebanon last April, Aoun declared his enmity towards Syria over. He said his focus shifted towards rebuilding an independent and sovereign Lebanon, free of corruption and confessional divisions.

Ironically, this did not prevent him from concluding political alliance with former Minister of Interior Michel Murr, once a powerful pro-Syrian ally in the North Metn region.

“This was a last-minute electoral alliance. After the Syrians withdrew from Lebanon, rules of the game changed,” said al-Khazen. “Demanding Syria’s pullout is no longer an issue.”

This prompted Druze leader and main opposition figure Walid Jumblatt — whose own list scored a sweeping victory in the Shouf mountains and the district of Baabda Aley — to blast Aoun for allowing himself to be used by Syria and its Lebanese allies to weaken the Christians. Jumblatt said it would allow another intervention by Damascus under the pretext of stabilizing Lebanon.

“(Syrian President) Bashar Assad and (Lebanese President) Emile Lahoud are intelligent. They brought Michel Aoun (back to Lebanon) to create tension with Hezbollah so to say to the Americans we can control the situation,” Jumblatt said in televised remarks Sunday night.

“We are back to 1976 when the Syrians entered Lebanon to protect the Christians and Lebanon was destroyed.”

Jumblatt described Aoun’s success as “a victory of extremism” over moderation — accusations that were strongly rejected by the general and his followers.

Among those who lost to Aoun was Nassib Lahoud, a well-respected moderate Christian opposition figure and a favorite presidential candidate. His defeat eliminates another stumbling bloc in Aoun’s aspirations to become Lebanon’s next president.

Al-Khazen rejected Jumblatt’s hinting of another possible internal war in Lebanon and said this was not an issue of extremism or moderation.

“The elections took place in a competitive way and it is a healthy, civilized and democratic process. It is the most honest elections,” he said.

“Was anyone killed in these elections? No. So why refer to civil war and extremism?”