for the area to have the election and that the normally harmonious village was up in arms about it.

"It's not normal," he said. "It's disruptive. It's his [Eddie's] fault. It's his work and it's not legal what's happened. He has no right to do this. It looks like the government wants to help him. He has contacts in the government."

Mr Obeid has been running the campaign from the Matrit house of his sister Melba and brother-in-law Joe Indari. Locals say the village is so small there was no need to have a local government and that they had got by very well without one in the past.

And until Mr Obeid's arrival in Matrit a fortnight ago, the numbers were favouring a clear win by Yola Obeid, a MaroniteChristian. But with the steady trickle of 22 of Eddie Obeid's friends and relatives - including four sons, his wife, a daughter and at least three nephews, plus business associates - arriving in recent days, the prospects of Mr Salame, a local teacher, have been looking up.

Mr Obeid, who was dumped as minister for fisheries after the last state election, sought leave from his party to travel to Lebanon on compassionate grounds. According to the Labor Party whip, Peter Primrose, The upper house MP applied for leave, saying that he had "urgent family business" to attend to in Lebanon. In a conversation with Mr Primrose, Mr Obeid explained that a relative had died and that he needed to sort out the estate, a claim which other relatives of