Palestinian local polls set for May in Gaza, West Bank

By Kaamil Ahmed

JERUSALEM (AA) - Palestinian municipal elections that were cancelled under controversial circumstances last year are now set to be held in May, the Ramallah-based Palestinian government announced Tuesday.

According to a statement issued by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA), polls will be held in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The decision contrasts with a court ruling issued last October calling for elections only to be held in the latter territory.

Scheduled elections were indefinitely postponed last September after members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party had their candidacies annulled by courts in Gaza, which is governed by rival faction Hamas.

According to a poll conducted at the time by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, almost two-thirds of Palestinians believed the court decision was politically motivated and had been intended to disrupt the electoral process.

On Tuesday, Hamas rejected the PA’s latest decision, saying elections should not be held until the two movements had hammered out a reconciliation agreement after years of animosity following 2006 legislative polls.

Had elections been held last October as planned, they would have seen Palestine’s two most prominent political movements -- Hamas and Fatah -- directly compete at the ballot box for the first time in a decade.

Hamas boycotted Palestinian municipal polls held in 2012.