Lebanese throng polls seen as test for Hezbollah

By Yara Bayoumy

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese crowded peacefully to the polls on Sunday in a high-stakes parliamentary election that pits Hezbollah and its allies, backed by Syria and Iran, against an anti-Syrian bloc that has U.S. and Saudi support.

With four hours to go before polls were due to close at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT), Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud said turnout had already reached 40 percent, suggesting it would exceed the 45 percent total recorded in the 2005 election.

That would be a high percentage for Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of the 3.26 million eligible voters live abroad.

Long queues spilled onto streets near some polling centres in Beirut. Some voters said they had been waiting for more than two hours to cast their ballot in what was widely expected to be a close contest between evenly balanced camps.

The two sides are at odds over Hezbollah's guerrilla force, which outguns the Lebanese army, and relations with neighbouring Syria, which dominated Lebanon for three decades until 2005.

Even if Hezbollah and its allies reverse their opponent's slim parliamentary majority, the likeliest outcome of the poll is another "national unity" government -- perhaps with a small group of independents holding the balance, analysts say.

Security was tight, with 50,000 troops and police deployed across Lebanon, especially in the most contested districts.

"Democracy is a blessing we must preserve, a blessing that distinguishes Lebanon in the Middle East," said President Michel Suleiman after voting in his home town of Amchit, north of Beirut. He urged Lebanese to vote "calmly and with joy".