TYRE, Lebanon, (AFP) -The people of southern Lebanon will have a chance to vote in municipal elections Sunday for the first time since 1963, following decades of Israeli occupation, civil war and other troubles.
The rest of the country went to the polls in 1998, nearly a decade after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war ended, but the south did not have the chance.
It was still occupied by Israeli troops, who only pulled out in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation, harried by guerrillas from two Shiite Muslim fundamentalist groups, Hezbollah and Amal.
The vote also comes amid unprecedented debate throughout Lebanon over the future role of the country's neighbour and effective power, Syria.
But while 115 towns and cities will be electing new municipal councils for the first time since 1963, the situation on the ground has still not returned to normal since the Israeli withdrawal.
The central government has refused to assume full control over the area, which has been left to Hezbollah and Amal by default.
As in the case of national legislative elections held last year, Hezbollah and Amal have formed an alliance in this region of some 500,000 people, where their partisans make up the majority of the population.
The two groups are well established in the south, not only because of their long-time military presence but also because of their extensive charity work and in the timid reconstruction underway since the Israeli pullout.
Amal is the leading hand in the Council of the South, a state organization charged with redevelopment in this traditionally short-changed region and indemnifying people who suffered losses during the war to eject Israel.
In the Christian constituency of Jezzine, forecasts are that partisans of Lebanon's Maronite Christian partriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, will outpoll candidates backed by MP Samir Azar, a member of the bloc led by parliamentary speaker and Amal head Nabih Berri.
The partisans of Cardinal Sfeir, a leading critic of Syria's domination of Lebanon, have gained in popularity since the patriarch denounced prison sentences handed down against hundreds of the some 3,000 people accused of collaborating with the Israeli occupation.
In predominantly Druze-inhabited areas, there is also expected to be a stiff contest, with the battle lines drawn between supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party of anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and those of Talal Arslan, who is backed by pro-Syrian political parties.