Hariri: Election 'very positive' sign to international community

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Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said the international community should look at the results of the country's first parliamentary elections in almost a decade in a "very positive way."

Lebanese cast their ballots on Sunday to choose a new parliament under a new and complicated electoral law, that many voters did not completely understand – a drawback that Hariri said was in part behind the low turnout rate.

The country is under pressure to prove to international donors and investors – who pledged more than 11 billion US dollars to Beirut last month – that it has a credible plan to reform its ailing economy.

Holding elections was seen as a key part of this.

Hariri also announced that his Sunni-dominated political movement had lost a third of its seats in parliament. He said the results, which have not yet been officially announced, credit his Future Movement with 21 of 128 seats, a drop from the 33 it controlled in the outgoing legislature.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters