Candidates on the "Change and Reform" electoral list of Lebanese leader Michel Aoun appear near a picture of his ally, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on a street in Beirut's suburbs June 2, 2009.
Nasrallah Sfeir is worried. The 85-year-old Patriarch of Lebanon's once-dominant Maronite Christian community says his "people are divided."
They are torn between supporting Christian parties that back the pro-Western March 14 Movement that governs the country, and those that support another Christian party, one that is allied with the Hezbollah-led opposition.
As a result, Lebanon, which has seen more than its share of civil war, foreign invasion and terrorism in the past three decades, may be on the verge of choosing a parliament led by a group that Canada and other countries consider terrorists.
Patriarch Sfeir chose his words carefully in the nationally televised sermon he delivered this week; he does not want to appear political. But he also knows that with the outcome all but certain in most Sunni and Shia Muslim districts, it will fall to Lebanon's Christians to determine which parliamentary group will triumph in Sunday's election.
And while he may have chosen his words carefully, to the cognoscenti the Patriarch's message was clear: A vote for Hezbollah risks dragging Lebanon into more conflict.
"He's really made no secret of his animosity toward Hezbollah," said Karim Makdisi, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.
Indeed, speaking to a Western correspondent after mass on Sunday, Patriarch Sfeir said he is deeply disturbed by Michel Aoun, the former military chief of staff who three years ago entered into a political agreement with Hezbollah.
"He's a good man," the Patriarch said of the General. "But he supports Hezbollah. He used to oppose them," he added, shaking his head.
But in the Christian towns and villages along the Mediterranean coast north of Beirut and in the hills above the city, there are many who part company with the Patriarch.
"The majority of people here are supporting Aoun," said the mukhtar , or head, of one district that accounts for about 9,000 registered voters. "And they don't believe that Hezbollah will cause them problems.
"People here remember Geagea," said the mukhtar , referring to the Lebanese Forces leader, Samir Geagea. The most prominent Christian leader supporting the March 14 bloc, Mr. Geagea served a lengthy prison term for crimes committed during the 1975-1990 civil war before being pardoned after Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2005.
"He was the sort of guy who'd take 30 people outside and have them shot," said the mukhtar . "They definitely prefer Aoun."
It has been a remarkable political comeback for Gen. Aoun, the man who once attempted to overthrow the Lebanese government; who fled the Syrians and spent 15 years in exile in France.
Returning to Lebanon just 11 days after Syrian forces left, Gen. Aoun made no secret of his political ambitions. Few people, however, took him seriously.
But having announced the creation of his Free Patriotic Movement and having parted company with the March 14 bloc, the General, as he likes to be known, stunned the Lebanese with his 2006 "Paper of Common Understanding" with Hezbollah.
"It was a brilliant stroke," Prof. Makdisi acknowledges. Today Gen. Aoun stands poised to become the kingmaker in Sunday's election. Breaking through sectarian barriers, he has breathed new political life into the opposition Hezbollah and its fellow Shia party, Amal.
The current parliamentary majority, the coalition of 67 deputies known as the March 14 Movement, is led by the Future Party of Saad Hariri, son of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in February, 2005.
Mr. Hariri rode a wave of public outrage and sympathy into office later that year. His party, composed mostly of Sunni Muslims, was joined by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, the mainly Christian Lebanese Forces of Mr. Geagea, and some smaller parties and independents. They chose the unelected, pro-Western Fouad Sinora to be Prime Minister.
But the outrage at the Hariri assassination has subsided. Not even the recent publication in a German newsmagazine of an article suggesting Hezbollah, rather than Syria, was behind the killing has stirred things up. As well, the governing group has been plagued with crises. First, there was the 2006 war waged by Israel against Hezbollah that killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed an enormous amount of Lebanon's infrastructure. Then came a serious challenge from Hezbollah, which emerged enhanced in influence after its run-in with Israel, to the makeup of the government.
The combination has left March 14's future precarious.
The major opposition bloc of 56 deputies, dominated by Hezbollah and Amal, had been unable to break through the ceiling imposed by Lebanon's political system that apportions seats on a sectarian basis - until they were joined by Gen. Aoun.
Of course, even if the opposition bloc does form a majority in parliament, Gen. Aoun, a Christian, would not become prime minister. That position is reserved for a Sunni Muslim, a fact that also precludes anyone in the Shia Hezbollah movement from taking the job.
That doesn't trouble Gen. Aoun or Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. In Lebanon, it's the power behind the scenes that matters most.