In Beirut 51 candidates, including the son of slain former premier Rafiq Hariri, are competing for 19 seats in the first phase of the elections. Hariri's electoral list has been made public and includes 19 Candidates.

In the South Region candidates will be competing for 23 seats: 12 seats in First District and 11 seats in the second district.

The rest of the country will hold the balance of the elections on the following Sundays.

The Lebanese Parliament will have 128 members. All the seats will be contested during these elections. Usually individual candidates register their candidacy with the Ministry of Interior and the Party leaders form their electoral lists from the registered candidates. All this is planned long before and involves a lot of Horse Trading. Nothing in Lebanon is done at random

All this is taking place in an atmosphere of confusion, mistrust, name calling and threats of boycott of elections. The anti-Syrian opposition has been fractured amid last-minute bickering. People forgot that 3 weeks ago Lebanon was still occupied by Syria. How short are peoples' memories? The Clerics and Politicians are doing a great job in inviting the Syrians back. Very few are thinking Lebanon!! Remember the Cedar Revolution? Where is the red, white and green flag??

Everyone is concerned about the timing of the elections and national unity.

UN's envoy for Lebanon, Terje Roed-Larsen, sent Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir a message "focusing on the importance of holding elections on time", UN spokesman Nejib Friji told . Sfeir, has flatly rejected the poll being based on the 2000 electoral law, which they say favors Muslims and would return a pro-Syrian parliament.

French ambassador Bernard Emie issued a similar call following talks with pro-Syrian parliament speaker Nabih Berri, also insisting on the need to preserve national unity and hold representative polls. "It is the responsibility of this country's national and political leaders to guarantee national cohesion and all efforts should be made to find solutions" to ensure fair representation in parliament, he said in a statement.

The main stumbling block so far is the 2000 electoral law that will govern these elections. The main obstacle in this law is the size of the electoral district. PM Mikati promised to try and make some changes, but Berri is here the obstacle. As the Speaker of the parliament, Berri can create obstacles for holding a parliamentary session to debate the law. Obstacles abound!!

The Maronite Church has charged that the 2000 electoral law is unfair because it allows only 15 Christian MPs to be elected by Christian voters, while 49 others would be elected by Muslims, and is therefore not representative of their community. The Al Taif accord stipulated that 64 of 128 member parliament should be of the Christian faith

The international community fears that a delay in the polls would create a political vacuum in the aftermath of the Syrian troop pullout.

The Lebanese government meanwhile signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission paving the way for a 100-strong team of EU observers to monitor the polls, officials said.

After a lot of bickering and name calling the anti Syrian Opposition leaders agreed Thursday to draw up jointly the electoral lists of candidates for the upcoming elections.

According to the interior ministry, a little over three million Lebanese will be able to cast their vote in the crucial polls, with 42 percent of them Christians and the rest Muslims.

Here are the polling lists as reported Friday May 13, 2005, which was the deadline for filing.

Saad Hariri's unofficial list for Beirut region has not been finalized pending the discussions taking place regarding the Maronite seat. Based on Al Safir Newspaper projections and Ya Libnan political correspondents, the list will be as follows:

Speaker Nabih Berri, meanwhile, announced his list of candidates for Amal and Hezbollah for the Southern region which is the Shiite heartland. The list includes 23 candidates who are all expected to win seats. Christian voters are a minority in these constituencies.

With 12 candidates in the First District and 11 candidates in the Second, the Southern region candidates are as follows:

SOUTHERN REGION
Religious Sect	Candidates
First District: Saidon, Zahrani, Sour, Bint-Jbeil
Shiite	Nabih Berri, Ali Ossairan, Ali Khorais, Abdul Majid Saleh, Mohd Fneish, Hassan Hub Ellah, Ali Bazzi, Ayub Hameed, Hassan Fadlallah
Sunni	Bahia Hariri, Ossama Saad
Catholic	Michel Moussa
Second District: Jezzine,Marjeyoun, Hasbayya, Nabattieh
Shiite	Mohammed Raad, Mohammed Haidar, Yasseen Jaber, Abdul Lateef Zain, Ali Hassan Khalil
Maronites	Samir Azar, Pierre Serhal
Catholic	Antoine Khoury
Orthodox	Saad Hardan
Druze	Anwar Khalil
Sunni	Qassim Hashem

It is important to note the following:

Ghazi Aridi is running unopposed. For all practical purposes he is already an MP in the new Parliament.

Ghazi El Youssef is also running unopposed. Again, he is already an MP in the new Parliament

Gibran Tueni (Managing Director of Al Nahar Newspaper) has left his candidacy in the hands of Cardinal Sfeir. "I have put my candidacy for an Ashrafiyeh seat at the Patriarch's disposal and I will as a member of the opposition abide by the position he takes, be it a boycott of the polls or a participation in the elections," Tueni told reporters after a meeting with the Patriarch at his seat in Bkirki.

Ghattas Khoury is at the mercy of the discussions between Patriarch Sfeir and Saad Hariri. Solange Gemayel, widow of the slain president Bashir Gemayel may replace Khoury, who is currently an MP and member of the Slain PM Hariri block.

Bahia Hariri, Sister of the Slain PM Hariri is running as an independent, but Speaker Nabih Berri announced that he is supporting her candidacy and therefore included her in his list. Same applies to Ossama Saad, the son of former MP Maarouf Saad.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the above lists are almost guaranteed to win, which will amount to very little change in the formation of the new parliament when compared to the current one.

Sources: Ya Libnan, , Naharnet, Al Safir