"If it fails to get a majority then we are likely to see a reproduction of the status quo," said Mohanad Hage Ali, director of communications for the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut.
Although rival political leaders had used their final hours of campaigning to urge supporters to vote in high numbers, early estimates suggested that only a quarter of the voting population had cast their ballots, an indication, experts said, of voter frustration and confusion over the new electoral system.
But for those who did turn out, many crowding polling stations in the early morning, the election was seen as a rare chance to push incremental change in a country that badly needed it.
For anyone younger than 30, the vote marked the first chance to cast a national ballot in their lifetimes. "Lebanon has a lot of issues but I love this country. People still hold onto hope, it's a hope that a better day is coming," said one 22-year-old, who gave only her first name, Mariam.
Although the Lebanese parliament's term expired in 2013, it has been renewed several times with officials citing security concerns linked to the bitter civil war in next-door Syria.
The Lebanese Army moved to secure the streets of Beirut; military vehicles rolled through a usually crowded street of bars and clubs as soldiers controlled the flow of traffic.
Anticipation had built for weeks as candidates campaigned vociferously, their faces looming over the city from billboard posters and banners plastered across shops and residential buildings. At polling stations across Beirut, the mood was upbeat throughout the morning as families turned out with their children and loyalists blared music from loudspeakers.
But as the day wore on, the stream turned into a trickle at many polling places.
Voters said they were worried about corruption throughout Lebanon's political elite. But few believed that the candidates and parties that had promised to tackle it would look closely at their own.
In an interview with leading Hizbollah candidate Ali Ammar, a Lebanese journalist grilled him on corruption allegations against a political ally.
He immediately changed the subject.
One Uber driver said he was not voting because he expected the "same faces" to return to parliament.
"I'm driving today, I'm just carrying on with my job," he said. "The candidates who stood in our district will disappear again as soon as they get the votes. I think it's best to stick with something a little more stable than voting - like my job."
