BEIRUT — Lebanon’s pro- Western coalition declared victory early today as local television stations reported that the faction had successfully fended off a serious challenge by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its allies to grab the majority in parliament.
Official results for Sunday’s election were not expected until later today, but the winners were already celebrating by shooting guns into the air, setting off fireworks and driving around in honking motorcades.
The election was an early test of President Barack Obama’s efforts to forge Middle East peace. A win by Hezbollah 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 Hezbollah’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 Hezbollah coalition. But Aoun was able to hang on to his representation in other districts.
Hezbollah had veto power in Saniora’s Cabinet for the past year, which it won after provoking the worst street clashes since the 1975-90 civil war. The pro-Western coalition had vowed that if it won, it would no longer give Hezbollah and allies a blocking minority in the new government.
