BEIRUT, Lebanon - Prominent Lebanese opposition leader MP Walid Jumblatt has secured a seat in parliament even before voters go to the polls, the interior ministry said Saturday.

Jumblatt and close ally MP Marwan Hamade won two seats allocated to Druze candidates in the Shouf constituency southeast of Beirut "because of the lack of (rival) candidates," a ministry statement said.

So far, 17 people have been automatically elected MPs in the 128-member parliament ahead of the elections starting Sunday, including nine candidates on the lists of the son of slain former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, Saad.

The polls will be the first to be held after Syria ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon last month in the face of massive protests and international pressure triggered by Hariri's assassination in February.

Lebanese elections are to be held on four consecutive Sundays, starting in Beirut on May 29.

The anti-Damascus opposition is set to largely increase its quota in parliament, which had been under the control of the pro-Syrians since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

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