Along the coastal highway north of Beirut, the biggest posters feature Michel Murr, the interior and deputy prime minister. Beirut wags interpret this to mean that, whatever else happens, Mr. Murr, a close ally of Syria, will remain in office. The election in the Metn, a mainly Christian region where Mr. Murr is standing, is bitter. Such charges echo across the country. Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze sect, an offshoot of Islam, says that security agencies are intervening in the election in his area in the Chouf mountains.
Most results are predictable.
Hizbollah, the Shia Islamist party, is buoyant after its success in fighting the Israelis, but its electoral wings have been clipped by an alliance, engineered in Damascus, with Amal, a rival Shia group closely tied to Syria. With so much sewn up, the main doubt is over who, after the election, will be prime minister, a post reserved for a Sunni Muslim. The incumbent, Selim al Hoss, may face a challenge from another prominent Sunni or from his predecessor, Rafik Hariri, who between 1992 and 1998 presided over economic growth reaching 8 per cent. With growth last year at minus 1 per cent, Mr. Hoss has been on the defensive. Mr Hariri, in turn, has been targeted by the government.