Lebanon's pro-Western coalition declared victory early today, as local television stations reported the faction had successfully fended off a serious challenge by the Shia militant group Hizbullah and its allies to grab the majority in parliament.
Official results for yesterday's election are not expected until later today.
The election is an early test of President Barack Obama's efforts to forge Middle East peace. A win by Hizbullah would have boosted the influence of its backers Iran and Syria and risked pushing one of the region's most volatile nations into international isolation and possibly into more conflict with Israel.
"I present this victory to Lebanon," Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said on television after stations projected his pro-Western coalition was winning. "It is an exceptional day for democracy in Lebanon."
OTV, the television station of one of Hizbullah's key Christian allies, former army chief Michel Aoun, conceded that the party's candidates who challenged pro-Western competitors in several Christian districts had been defeated, preventing a victory for the Hizbullah coalition. But Aoun was able to hang on to his representation in other districts.
Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, a leading private Christian TV station, projected the pro-Western coalition to win 68 seats in the next parliament, with 57 for Hizbullah and its allies and three for independents.
That would almost replicate the deadlock that existed in the outgoing parliament, in which the pro-Western bloc had 70 seats and an alliance of Hizbullah and other Shia and Christian factions had 58.
The leader of the largest bloc in the pro-Western coalition, Saad Hariri, said early today in a televised speech that he extends his hand to the losing side "to work together and seriously for the sake of Lebanon." He urged supporters to celebrate without provoking opponents.
Despite the conciliatory tone, Lebanon is at risk of sliding again into a political crisis over formation of the next government similar to the one that buffeted the country for most of the last four years.
Hizbullah had veto power in Saniora's Cabinet for the last year, which it won after provoking the worst street clashes since the 1975-1990 civil war. The pro-Western coalition had vowed not to give Hizbullah and its allies a blocking minority in the new government if they won.
The battle in Christian districts was the decisive factor. Lebanese generally vote along sectarian and family loyalties, with seats for Sunnis and Shias in the half-Christian, half-Muslim, 128-member parliament already locked up even before the voting started.
Christians in the pro-Western coalition warned that Hizbullah would bring the influence of Shia Iran to Lebanon. The Maronite Catholic Church made a last-minute appeal, warning that Lebanon as a state and its Arab identity were threatened, a clear reference to Hizbullah and its Persian backer, Iran.
Sunnis were also driven to vote for the pro-Western coalition to get back at Shia Hezbollah gunmen for seizing the streets a year ago in Beirut from pro-government supporters.
Some 3.2 million people out of a population of 4 million were eligible to vote, and the interior minister said after polls closed that the turnout nationwide was about 52.3 percent, an increase over the 2005 figure of 45.8 percent.