Hezbollah hails ‘great victory’ after Lebanon vote

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah claimed victory on Monday after elections it said legitimised its military branch, leaving Saudi-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri as the main loser.

The two main protagonists of the country’s first legislative polls in almost a decade did not wait for final results to comment on the implications of a vote which was also marked by low turnout.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called the vote “a great political and moral victory for the resistance option that protects the sovereignty of the country.”

The Iran-backed Shiite movement and its allies look set to secure a parliament bloc large enough to thwart attempts for it to disarm, a longstanding demand of its political enemies.

“The make-up of the new legislative chamber represents a guarantee and a great strength to protect this strategic choice and to protect the golden equation — the army, the people and the resistance,” Nasrallah said.

The man who has led calls internally for Hezbollah to lay down its arms is Hariri, whose Sunni-dominated Future Movement — less dominant since it lost Saudi Arabia’s lavish support — lost a third of its seats.

Hariri told reporters his party had won 21 seats, a drop from the 33 it controlled in the outgoing legislature.