It was a sea of yellow as thousands of men, women and children waving Hizbullah flags and wearing the group's trademark yellow caps rallied on a giant plot of land in the ancient eastern city of Baalbek in support of the heavily armed militant group.

One after another, many attendees vowed to vote for the Shiite Muslim Hizbullah and its allies, rejecting any attempt to disarm the powerful group.

Lebanon held its first election Sunday since a painful economic crisis dragged it to the brink of becoming a failed state, a major test for new opposition groups bent on ousting the ruling elite. 

But few observers expected a seismic shift, with all levers of political power firmly in the hands of traditional sectarian parties and an electoral system seen as rigged in their favor.

Ballot boxes for Sunday’s parliamentary elections were distributed Saturday to polling stations across Lebanon, as security forces began their deployment around voting centers.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday snapped back at Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil over his latest remarks against the LF, a few hours before the country enters electoral silence for Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Friday said anew that he is in favor of “peace with Israel,” while adding that such a peace would have its “conditions.”

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called on supporters to vote Sunday against “those conspiring against the resistance and its arms.”

“Voting on election day will be a message to all those conspiring against the resistance and its arms and against the future of the Lebanese,” Nasrallah said in a televised address during Hizbullah’s electoral rally in the Bekaa.

The May 15 parliamentary elections come amid a “delicate situation” and will decide Lebanon’s “strategic choice” in the coming period, Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh has said.

“Our choice is known and clear and we’ve been engaged in the battle of choices for the past 30 years. We have not changed and we will not change,” Franjieh said in an interview on al-Mayadeen TV.

Ex-PM Fouad Saniora has called on the Lebanese to vote for a “strong state” and against “gun silencers and explosives,” in an apparent jab at Hizbullah, a few days ahead of the May 15 parliamentary elections.

“We are building and they are destroying and sabotaging. We are the ones who want Lebanon to be Arab, sovereign and independent in words and deeds,” Saniora said at a press conference.

Protestors in Lebanon denounced the killing of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh for the third day.

Lebanese and Palestinians gathered Friday in Tyre, after a candlelight vigil took place last night outside the United Nations ESCWA building in Beirut.

Lebanese activists Friday rolled out mock banknotes featuring paintings of a gutted central bank or the Beirut port explosion to denounce high-level corruption that has helped to wreck the country.

The collapse of the Lebanese pound and frozen bank accounts have left Lebanon with a confusing currency system, with a multitude of exchange rates applying to various situations in daily life.