BAABDA, June 12: Voters flocked to the polls in Lebanon on Sunday for the third round of elections hotly contested by rival anti-Syrian candidates as the shadow of its powerful neighbour loomed large.

The election in eastern and central regions of the country was held as a UN special envoy met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amid US claims that Syrian intelligence agents remained in Lebanon despite its troop pullout in April.

No final turnout figures were immediately available when polls closed at 6pm but three hours earlier Prime Minister Najib Miqati said it varied between 20 per cent and 50 per cent depending on the constituency.

Miqati said no disturbances had been reported during the polls, and hailed what he called the “democratic atmosphere” of the voting for 58 representatives from the Bekaa Valley and Mount Lebanon.

The premier predicted the final turnout would be “high because of the tightness of the races.”

Unlike the first two rounds which saw clean sweeps by the anti-Syrian opposition and the pro-Syrian Shia movements Hezbollah and Amal respectively, Sunday’s vote witnessed a real election battle.

The fiercest contest pitted retired Christian general and former exile Michel Aoun and his Free Patriotic Current against opposition Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and his anti-Syrian ticket.

Christian politicians are also at odds with each other after Aoun, who was kicked out of Lebanon by Syrian forces after the 1975-1990 civil war, decided to forge an unlikely alliance with pro-Damascus candidates.

Jumblatt, who allied himself with wartime foes the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF), accused Aoun of trying to divide the anti-Syrian opposition, which expects to win the majority of seats in the 128-member parliament.

LF organizer Georges Tawil told AFP the alliance with Jumblatt was intended to “turn the page on the civil war”.

The four-round elections are the first free of Syria’s 29-year-long military presence and follow the February killing of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri which plunged Lebanon into turmoil.

“He’s an extremist and we will not let him steal our victory,” Jumblatt said of Aoun.

After casting his ballot in Baabda-Aley, home to a mixed Christian and Druze population, Aoun urged Lebanese to “go and vote, today we are exercising democracy.”

He said he had sought to revive the competitive nature of polls because “in Syria’s era elections had become mere appointments and results were known in advance.”

In the Bekaa, the Hezbollah-Amal coalition list is tipped to win in two districts, while Aoun’s list is running against Jumblatt’s coalition in the third. Hezbollah was seen ferrying busloads of supporters to polling stations.

Official results were not expected before Tuesday but exit polls were expected soon after polling stations closed.

—AFP