An Amal-Hizbollah alliance won a landslide in the south in the last general election in 2000, capitalizing on wide spread support only months after Israel ended its occupation.

Hizbollah is fielding 14 candidates across Lebanon, hoping to build on the nine seats it already holds in the 128-member legislature. It has already won one seat in Beirut.

"I am going to vote for Hizbollah because they liberated the south. We owe them our blood," said Zeinab Yasin in Houla, one of the first towns to be abandoned by Israeli troops in 2000. "Your vote is a bullet in the enemy's chest," read a banner in the mainly Sunni city of Sidon.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Amal movement, urged the groups' supporters to turn out in large numbers "to vote against Resolution 1559." Interior Ministry sources said turnout among the 675,000 eligible voters was only 38 percent an hour before polls closed at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT). Official results are expected on Monday.

Central and eastern Lebanon will vote next weekend in what promises to be the most heated round.

At least five people were wounded in violence in the Mount Lebanon village of Soufar on Sunday, when a gun battle erupted between supporters of rival Druze factions armed with assault rifles. It was not clear what triggered the clash.

The anti-Syrian opposition is expected to win in most parts of Lebanon. Following the latest tragic assassination of journalist Samir Kassir, the opposition is now demanding that pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud resign, calling for a nationwide sit in on Monday. Lahoud on Sunday rejected demands that he resign.

"I promised the Lebanese people when I was sworn in that I would uphold the constitution and Lebanon's unity," Lahoud said. "I am keeping my oath until the last minute of my constitutional tenure."

Despite strong calls by the opposition to oust Lahoud, Maronite Christian Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir continues to support Lahoud, citing concerns over stability. "If the president is forced out, would it bring stability to Lebanon?" he asked in his Sunday sermon. "Do we forget that there are hidden forces that want to prove to the world that Lebanon cannot rule itself?"

Lebanon's elections are being held by region over four weeks.

Pictures from today's election:

Lebanese supporters of Hezbollah signal a thumbs down at a portrait of US President George Bush in a cowboy hat beside a picture of party leader Nasrallah in Tyre.

A Lebanese woman stares at an effigy of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice draped in Israeli and U.S flags, in Tyre.

Lebanese parliament house speaker and head of the Shi'ite Amal Movement, Nabih Berri, waves at a polling station in Tebnin village, south Lebanon.

European Union's chief election observer Jose Ignacio Salafranca (R) tours a polling station in Nabatiyeh town in south Lebanon.

European Union's chief election observer Jose Ignacio Salafranca (R) tours a polling station in Nabatiyeh town in south Lebanon.

Sources: Ya Libnan, AP, , Reuters, Yahoo