Hizbollah aligned with rival group Amal for the elections. The Amal-Hezbollah alliance had 14 Shiite candidates, two Maronite Catholics, two Greek Catholics, one Greek Orthodox and one Druze. This conformed to the sectarian allocation of Lebanon's political system.

The results were so lopsided that the losers, a range of communists and independents, received little more than 10 percent of the vote. Among them was Anwar Yassin, a communist ex-guerrilla who spent 17 years in an Israeli jail before being freed in a prisoner swap last year.

"The south has declared, clearly and before international observers, it's backing to the resistance as a path for the past, present and future," said Amal's chief and Lebanon's parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri.

"Even the rival candidates are resistance fighters," he said at a press conference, rejecting calls for "disarming the resistance." Mohammed Fneish, a Hezbollah lawmaker, polled the highest Sunday, surpassing Berri.

Berri clashed with Michel Aoun, who supported contender Riyad Al Asaad against Berri in the Zahrani district in Southern Lebanon. The outburst marks the first public quarrel between the two leaders since Aoun returned to Lebanon after 15 years of exile in France.

"I believe the General is functioning in politics as he did in the army. He is against all people, which I think would lead him to nowhere," Berri said from his countryside mansion in Mosseileh, south of Sidon.

"I don't understand his policies," Aoun lashed back from his Rabiyeh residence, north of Beirut. "We speak two different languages."

Two rounds of voting remain to determine who will fill the seats of the 128-member parliament under the country's power-sharing system.

On June 12, voters will go to the polls in central Lebanon in the home territory of opposition leader Walid Jumblatt. On the following Sunday, June 19th, balloting takes place in the north and east.

By the end of the election, Lebanon observers expect to see a split parliament, but with many of the same faces.

Tempers flared in the Metn district in Mount-Lebanon over the weekend, as rival parties clashed. Nail-topped clubs, stones, empty bottles, and gunfire stunned residents of Soufar and Qarnayel, prompting the army to intervene and make a total of 26 arrests.

Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party and rival Talal Arslan's Democratic Party blamed each other for the violence. At least three injured are still in hospitals, but no fatal casualties were reported.

Arslan, a staunch Syrian loyalist who has distanced himself from the Assad regime after the Syrian evacuation of Lebanon in April, is aligned with Aoun to challenge Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblatt.

Sources: Ya Libnan, AP, , Naharnet