Before Sunday’s vote, Hezbollah had ______ legislative seats in south Lebanon. [

Hezbollah’s electoral victory in south Lebanon gives the militant group more muscle to strongly rebuff international calls to lay down its weapons and become a purely political party.
   The strong endorsement at home, however, gave Hezbollah what it sought: a popular mandate that flies in the face of U.S. and U.N. demands for it to disarm.
   "Because the resistance is a natural result of Israel’s aggression and its wars and massacres in Lebanon, it was not stage for the south to declare frankly before international observers that it belongs to the resistance," said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, leader of the Shiite Amal movement, which shared the Hezbollah ticket.
   The HezboUah-Amal alliance won all 17 of the contested seats by a wide margin, Interior Minister Hassan Sabel said. The ticket also took six unchallenged seats.
   Sunday’s vote increased Hezbollah’s legislators in south Lebanon from four to five. The group also won a seat in Beirut last week in the first round of the staggered elections, which continue over four Sundays until June 19.
   The results give a slight political edge to those considered allies of Syria, which was forced to withdraw in April after nearly two decades of military and political control over its smaller neighbor.
   The pro-Syrians now hold 23 seats, compared to 19 by the opposition that had demanded Syria’s withdrawal. Hezbollah, backed by both Syria and Iran, had nine seats nationwide in the outgoing 128-member legislature.
    The United States, Canada and Israel have listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. While the European Union has not listed the group as terrorist, it has expressed concerns about the group and called for its disarmament in line with last year’s Security Council Resolution 1559.
   Hezbollah has refused to disarm. It has been backed on this point by the Lebanese government, which argues that Hezbollah is legitimately resisting Israel’s alleged occupation of a parcel of territory on the south Lebanon border.
   The elections are the first national polls to be conducted since Syria withdrew all its troops from Lebanon in April after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Premier Raflk Hariri in a massive bombing. The anti-Syrian opposition hopes the elections will end Damascus’ control of the legislature.