Hezbollah and ally claim victory
 |  Hezbollah supporters signal a "thumbs down" at a portrait of U.S President George Bush. |
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| | LEBANESE ELECTIONS | AT STAKE: All 128 seats in Parliament. Legislature is
divided equally between Christians and Muslims, with most of the 18
sects getting a slice.
FOUR STAGES: Elections will be held on four consecutive Sundays in different parts of the country, beginning with Beirut on May 29.
ALREADY DECIDED: A total of 17 seats have been won uncontested because there were no challengers.
Source: The Associated Press
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian ally Amal have claimed overwhelming victories in phase two of Lebanon's parliamentary elections.
The two parties, Syria's most powerful allies in Lebanon, say they have won all 23 seats in the southern areas bordering Israel.
In the predominantly Shiite region, many see the vote as a referendum on Hezbollah and its weapons, and a mandate for anti-Israeli militias to keep their weapons.
Hezbollah, which the United States calls a terrorist organization, says it maintains its weapons as a deterrent against Israel.
Official results from Sunday's vote are expected later on Monday.
Last week the opposition bloc led by a son of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri won a decisive victory in round one of the elections.
In the first vote since the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanese territory, the list led by Saad Hariri won all 19 seats up for grabs in the capital of Beirut, amid low turnout, in the first of four rounds of balloting.
No one has been charged in the February car bombing that killed the elder Hariri, a businessman-turned-politician who led Lebanon's pro-Syrian government before becoming an advocate of Syria's withdrawal.
His death sparked massive protests and renewed international pressure on Damascus to withdraw the nearly 14,000 troops and intelligence officers it kept in Lebanon -- a pullout that was completed in April.
Two rounds of voting remain to determine who will fill the seats of the 128-member parliament under the country's power-sharing system.
On June 12, voters will go to the polls in central Lebanon -- the home territory of opposition leader Walid Jumblatt.
And on the following Sunday -- June 19th -- balloting takes place in the north and east.
By the end of the election, Lebanon observers expect to see a split parliament, but with many of the same faces.
The turnout on Sunday remained low -- an estimated 34 percent, compared to 28 percent in the first round of voting in Beirut.
That may be due to some disappointment among the nation's three million voters, who hoped the country might be turning a page and leaning toward a more democratic society with the withdrawal of Syria, but who have seen only more political bickering and fragmentation, journalist Anthony Mills told CNN.
"There really is a sense among people that the conclusion, the outcome, is a foregone conclusion, and that maybe very little has actually changed on the ground," Mills said.
Journalist Anthony Mills contributed to this report.
