Lebanon braced for close-run vote

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/8086515.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Campaigning is drawing to a close in Lebanon's fiercely contested general election with voting due to begin early on Sunday.

The Western-backed alliance, which currently has a small majority in parliament, faces a coalition led by Hezbollah and backed by Iran and Syria.

Both sides made full use of massive advertising hoardings, mobile phone messages and the internet to campaign.

The race also saw the more traditional rallies and televised addresses.

With the result hanging in the balance, some of the parties have also paid for thousands of Lebanese expatriates to fly home to vote, and Beirut airport has rarely seen such crowds.

Some 50,000 security forces have been deployed around the country for fear of election violence.

So far there has been no trouble to speak of and the authorities do not expect major incidents.

But tensions are high in some of the areas where competition is particularly fierce.

Christian vote key

Those are almost all Christian constituencies.

Because the Christians are split almost evenly between the two camps, it is there that the election will be decided, with the floating voters playing a determining role.

In most other areas, the outcome can be predicted with relative certainty.

The almost universal expectation is that, if either side wins, it will be by a very narrow margin, and there is a strong chance of neither side gaining a simple majority.

That would mean a hung parliament, with a handful of independent candidates holding the balance.

Hezbollah itself is fielding only 11 candidates for the 128-member parliament, though it is a powerful member of the broader opposition coalition, which includes the maverick Christian leader Michel Aoun, and the mainstream Shia movement Amal.

So Western fears of a Hezbollah "takeover" do not really fit the bill.