In the parliamentary elections in Lebanon, the "Lebanese Forces" (FL) emerge as the big winners.

For the "Free Patriotic Movement" (CPL) of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, on the other hand, there was a large decline, as the newspaper "L'Orient le Jour" reported on Monday.

According to preliminary information from the Lebanese Ministry of the Interior on Monday morning, voter turnout was around 41.4 percent, around seven percent below the turnout in the last parliamentary elections in 2018, which was around 49 percent.

This is the lowest turnout in a parliamentary election in the country's history.

It was initially unclear whether the numbers also included the votes of Lebanese living abroad.

Around 220,000 Lebanese abroad had registered to vote.

At 63 percent, their turnout was about three times higher than in previous elections.

Official numbers on the election results are expected this Monday.

According to "L'Orient le Jour", the low turnout could be due, among other things, to the fact that the list of registered voters is not updated and therefore also includes people who have emigrated or died.

Furthermore, according to initial results, voter turnout in areas with a Sunni majority has fallen sharply.

This is likely due to the resignation of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his call for an election boycott.

Rumors of vote buying

The partial results indicate that the new parliament will be characterized by a stronger polarization between a pro-Hezbollah and an anti-Hizbullah camp, it said.

In addition, there was a voter migration between the two major Christian parties CPL and FL.

The Christian public, which was dominated by the Shiite Hezbollah for 17 years, has "switched sides," said FL chairman Samir Geagea in a television interview on Sunday evening.

Acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati described the election to the state news agency "NNA" as a "success in every respect".

He expressed hope that "these elections will produce a parliament that will work with the incoming executive to help Lebanon out of its current crisis."

According to local media, the elections were overshadowed by unrest in several constituencies, which is why voting at the polling stations had to be interrupted in some cases.

According to the Lebanese armed forces, five people were injured in clashes at a polling station in the north of the country.

At the same time, there were rumors of vote-buying on election day.

Despite isolated "minor problems", the head of the EU observer mission, György Hölvenyi, spoke in the local media of a largely calm election atmosphere.

The observers described it as problematic that two-thirds of the polling stations were difficult or impossible to access for people with restricted mobility without outside help.

A detailed report by the observers on the election is to be published on Tuesday morning.