BEIRUT, 31 May 2005 — European Union observers yesterday hailed the “open and transparent” conduct of Lebanon’s first round of parliamentary elections, held without the presence of Syrian troops.

“The process was open and transparent,” said EU MP Jose Ignacio Salafranca Sanchez-Neyra, head of the EU observer mission and member of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Commission.

Earlier yesterday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he hoped the “democratic conduct” of the first round would help Lebanon recover full sovereignty.

The son of murdered former Premier Rafik Hariri scored a clean sweep in the elections.

Saad Hariri’s lists won in all three constituencies in the capital, where a total of 19 parliamentary seats were up for grabs, Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa told a news conference yesterday.

But fewer than one-in-three voters cast ballots in Sunday’s vote, leaving the anti-Syrian opposition without the massive popular endorsement it had hoped for given the sea change in Lebanon’s political scene since the last Syrian soldier left a month ago.

Officials put the turnout at just 27 percent. Hariri’s success is widely seen as a vote for his father whose February killing in a Beirut bomb blast triggered a major political upheaval in Lebanon that led Damascus to end its 29-year military presence.

His list won nine seats by default due to a lack of rival candidates. “Beirut gives its votes to its martyr,” said As-Safir newspaper. Final results nationwide will not be known until after June 19, when the final round of the four-stage election is held.

Sabaa attributed the low Beirut turnout to the fact that Hariri’s candidates were assured of victory, adding that “some parties had also called for a boycott.”

Saad Hariri personally obtained 39,499 votes, the largest number of votes in all constituencies. “This is a victory for Rafik Hariri...the blood of Rafik Hariri will not go in vain,” the son told cheering crowds outside his Beirut home on Sunday.

Saad Hariri, a 35-year-old businessman but a newcomer to the world of politics, has so far remained coy about whether he would consider taking on the post of prime minister that his billionaire tycoon father held five times.

“The results were a referendum for the continuation of Rafik Hariri’s national, political and economic policies,” Al-Liwaa daily said.

In Beirut, turnout was especially low in Christian areas where some parties had called for a boycott due to electoral disputes.

“We are saddened by the low turnout, especially among the Christians,” said Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, one of the strongest opponents of Syria’s long-time political domination.

Damascus was the key powerbroker both on the ground and in the corridors of power, a role which ensured the pro-Syrian camp triumphed in the three legislative elections held since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.