BEIRUT: Lebanese voters go to the polls today for a parliamentary election showdown between the ruling Western-backed coalition and factions led by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

The vote is being held under tight security with 50,000 soldiers and police deployed across the country to prevent violence between the two camps.

More than 200 international observers from the European Union, the Carter Centre and other institutions will oversee the election. Today’s vote is being held from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time, with 3.2 million people eligible to cast their ballot.

At stake is whether the small Mediterranean country continues to enjoy widespread support from the West or whether it tilts more toward Iran if Hezbollah and its allies win.

The United States, which considers the Shiite Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization, has already said that its continued aid to Lebanon hinges on which side emerges victorious.

Analysts and pollsters predict a tight race for the 128-seat Parliament with the winner clinching victory by just a few seats.

But they also say that whoever has the upper hand in forming the new government will most probably strike a deal with the opposing camp given Lebanon’s power-sharing system.. A handful of key battleground constituencies are likely to be crucial in determining the outcome, with the Christian vote, which is divided between the two camps, set to tip the scale.

Both the current majority and the opposition have poured millions into the campaign, flying in thousands of their constituents from overseas amid expectations that their ballots could be a deciding factor.

Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said yesterday he was hopeful of a smooth process and warned that voter fraud would not be tolerated after dozens of fake identity cards were seized in several regions.

“We will be diligent at the polling stations and anyone involved in fraud risks prison,” he said.

The head of Lebanon’s powerful Maronite church, Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, issued a stern message on the eve of the election urging voters against what he called “threats to Lebanon’s identity.”

“There are threats facing Lebanon’s identity and our Arab identity, and we must be wary of this danger,” said Sfeir, who in February warned that it could be dangerous if the Hezbollah-led camp unseats the majority in parliament. Lebanon’s complex power-sharing system divides the 128 seats in Parliament equally between Christians and Muslims.

Top government posts are also allocated along confessional lines. The president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni and the speaker of Parliament a Shiite. The Sunni-led majority in Parliament swept to power in 2005 amid a wave of popular discontent following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a massive car bombing in Beirut. The bombing forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after a 29-year presence amid accusations — which were strongly denied by Damascus — of Syrian involvement.