BEIRUT: Despite the fact that all 24 candidates running on the list backed by Prime Minister Rafik Hariri won in Sunday's municipal election in Beirut, the failure of the Interior Ministry to produce an official vote count two days after the polls closed has bolstered criticism that the election results were the product of a particularly low voter turnout.

"The ministry does not have justifiable reasons for its delay, as it should have already listed the number of voters in Sunday's election," said Ghassan Makarem, executive director of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE). "The government fears that the final number would support on-going interpretations that there was a low turnout in Beirut."

On Monday evening, the Interior Ministry issued what it said were preliminary results indicating the winners of specific elections. However, those results failed to specify the total number of voters who participated in the capital's election.

"Participation was excellent," said Abdel-Monem Aris, a winning candidate Sunday and the hands-on favorite to be re-elected mayor of Beirut. "Some 50 percent of voters holding voting cards cast their ballot on Sunday, which is around 25 percent of the total voters registered on the voting lists."

Aris stressed that in the 1998 municipal election, voters could vote by showing either a voting card, an identity card or a civil registration document, whereas in the 2004 municipal election, only voting cards were accepted as proof of eligibility - a change that he said should have depressed voter turnout but which had actually had little effect.

"They are trying to cover their defeat by saying that 50 percent of voters with registration cards voted Sunday," said Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) media secretary Elias Zoghbi.

Noting that the candidate with the largest votes was Saad Wazzan from Ahbash, who received 59,393 votes, Zoghbi said "such numbers reveal that Hariri's popularity has decreased, because if it was not for the political parties, the prime minister would have received around 20,000 votes."

"The FPM alone received around 16,500 votes in Beirut," he added.

According to political observer Ziad Majed, "the turnout in Beirut's election was very low, particularly for the municipal election, since more voted for the mukhtars."

Majed said that it was probable that 80,000 people voted in the municipal contests while 100,000 voted for the mukhtars. "The political impact of such a number reveals certain anger directed against Hariri's list."

Majed singled out the opposition for criticism as well, saying that they had not involved all Beiruti forces in the forming of their list, and had not formulated a clear political stand.

He listed the Democratic Forum and Christian forces as parties which could have been included in the list, but were not.

"A large turnout could have been realized if the opposition was more organized," he added.

He called for instituting a proportional representation system in Beirut, which he said would better represent minorities. He also said a system which divided the capital into 12 electoral districts would also be preferable to the current system.

"Dividing the capital into electoral districts would stipulate that both the majority and the minorities would get seats in the municipal council," said Majed.

During a celebration rally Monday evening in Verdun, Hariri rebuffed all criticism of his Beirut Unity list's apparent win, saying: "Some are trying to reduce our victory by saying that less voters participated in Beirut's election. The truth is that Beirut voted clearly and honestly for Beirut's coalition, and for this municipal council, which represents all sections of the society."

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Elias Murr and the Internal Security Forces' Director-General Major General Marwan Zein visited President Emile Lahoud, who praised the ISF and the ministry for doing an excellent job during elections in Mount Lebanon, the Bekaa and Beirut.