The bloc of Saad Hariri, son of Lebanon's slain Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, won all 19 seats in the capital in Sunday's first stage of the parliamentary elections, Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa announced Monday.

Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, won 39,500 of 42,000 votes cast in his constituency, the highest number in any of the 10 contested seats in the mainly Sunni Lebanese capital.

Saad's bloc has already secured nine seats by default.

The interior minister also said only 28 percent of 400,000 eligible voters turned out.

The voting in Beirut began at 7 AM (04:00 GMT) and closed at 6 PM (15:00 GMT).

The 19 seats will be allocated to six Sunni Muslims, three Armenian Orthodox, two Greek Orthodox, two Shiite Muslims, one Druze, one Maronite Catholic, one Armenian Catholic, one Greek Catholic, one Protestant and one for minorities.

Being the first ballot in Lebanon after Syria withdrew its troops after a 29-year presence, it will be held on four consecutive Sundays until June 19 in different constituencies across the country.

Syria completed all troops withdrawal from its tiny neighbor on April 26 under intense international pressure and mass Lebanese protests following the assassination of Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14.

The death of Hariri, a Sunni and the major architect of Lebanon's post-civil war reconstruction, also plunged Lebanon into a political crisis and forced the resignation of its pro-Syrian government.

(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2005)