Counting under way in Lebanon poll

Counting is under way after Lebanese voters flocked to the polls in an election in which a Hezbollah-led coalition was aiming to seize the parliamentary majority from a Western-backed alliance.The first results from Sunday's general election were expected within hours of polls closing at 7pm local time (16:00 GMT).Long queues had formed outside polling stations during the day, with some people complaining that they had to wait for up to three hours to cast their ballots.Lebanon's interior ministry said turnout had reached 46 per cent shortly before the close, exceeding the 45 per cent total recorded in the 2005 election."Such voter turnout is unheard of in the history of Lebanese elections," Ziad Baroud, Lebanon's interior minister, said.Reporting from Beirut, said that the high turnout was "surprising and extraordinarily encouraging"."You have the sense here that people really felt like their vote was going to count for the first time in a long time," he said.It is the first time that a Lebanese election has been held on a single day rather than over a month.