Hezbollah gains expected in Lebanon
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BEIRUT - Hezbollah and its Christian allies are expected to gain a slim advantage in Sunday's Lebanese parlia- mentary election, erasing the Western-backed anti-Syrian coalition's majority, pollsters said yesterday.
With most of the 128 seats decided by sectarian voting patterns and electoral pacts, the race will focus on some 30 seats.
The Christian vote is seen as the main deciding factor.
"In the end, I imagine that the opposition will win the majority by a very slim margin - two or three seats extra," Abdo Saad, director of the Beirut Center for Research and Information, told Reuters.
Rampant vote-buying and the unprecedented number of expatriates flying in or being flown in to cast their ballots could also affect which way the tightly contested seats go.
A victory by Hezbollah and its allies will not necessarily align Lebanon squarely with the militant Shi'ite group's backers Iran and Syria. Nor will the West necessarily cut off its support for the fragile country.
Analysts say a national unity government is the most likely outcome, partly due to a rapprochement between Syria and Saudi Arabia, who back opposing factions in Lebanon, and the United States' recent policy of engaging with Syria and Iran.
