swept all the 28 seats of Northern Lebanon, giving them the 72 seat majority, they fought so hard to get during the past week.

Preliminary results show Hariri's allies in the north winning big. The opposition (comprising of Jumblatt, Hariri, Lebanese Forces, Kornet Shahwan & Amine Gemayel) needed to win 21 of the 28 seats to have a parliamentary majority. The Opposition had already won in previous rounds 44 seats in the 128-seat parliament. Elections started on May 29.

In a phone interview with the major Lebanese TV channels, Jumblatt, the leader of the anti Syrian opposition sounded victorious and extremely pleased with the results. His tone was completely different from last Sunday's.

Jumblatt outlined the tasks that will be faced by the new parliament:
- Electing a new speaker
- Selecting a new prime minister
- The economy
- Taif Accord
- New election law
- Relationship with Syria

Jumblatt stressed the importance of establishing good and correct relationship with Syria. Jumblatt has always called for proper and correct relationship with Syria, as soon as Syria gets out from Lebanon. Establishing embassies in Damascus and Beirut will be the first item on the Agenda, which will confirm Syria's respect for Lebanese Sovereignty and Independence.

When asked about forcing Lahoud to resign, Jumblatt said "I will leave this matter up to Cardinal Sfeir." The opposition always called for Lahoud's resignation but Sfeir opposed it.

Aoun so far has secured 21 seats in last Sunday's election. Aoun was counting on the momentum of the sweeping victory he achieved last week, to give him and his pro Syrian allies (Suleiman Franjieh and the SNSP Syrian party) another sweeping victory in the North, but this did not materialize.

The results were a major defeat for Aoun personally, who declared yesterday that he "was proud to have been the one that divided the (anti-Syrian) opposition". His plans to become the next president are now history, since it will be very difficult for him to rebuild the bridges (with the opposition) that he destroyed during the past 2 weeks. On the other hand it will be prudent of the opposition to adopt many of the reforms and changes that he called for.

The last few days of the elections were dirty. Both sides repeatedly attacked, defamed and slandered one another.

The fourth round of elections was also marred by allegations of corruption, after Aoun accused Hariri of using his father's fortunes to buy votes.

Aoun and Omar Karami also accused Hariri of rousing sectarianism by indirectly appealing to the North's Muslim majority to vote in high numbers for his lists. Karami even accused the Sunnite Mufti of taking sides in the election (by favoring Hariri) and threatened to replace the Mufti. The Mufti is the highest authority in Sunnite community.

Suleiman Franjieh even accused the Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa of interfering on the side of Hariri's allies, but Sabaa denied.

Turnout in North Lebanon varied from about 40% in Tripoli to as high as 55% in other areas The official numbers will be released Monday by the ministry of interior.

As we predicted, the election battle of the North decided the future government of Lebanon. We expect the president to name Saad Hariri as the new PM. It remains to be seen if Saad will decline and instead nominate Najib Mikati, who gained a lot of respect for his impartiality in the elections, even though he is known to be a friend of Assad.

Sources: Ya Libnan , Reuters