No members of the Hamas party attended the Thursday meeting of PLO factions alongside the elections committee to prepare for a June municipal vote across the West Bank and Gaza, Fatah General Elections Commissioner Muhammad Al-Madani said.

Though Hamas is not part of the PLO, the party was invited to the meeting, Al-Madani said, to prepare for elections called by the Ramallah-based caretaker government on 2 February. The Palestinian Authority Cabinet, under appointed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, set the elections date for 17 July 2010.

A Hamas spokesperson objected to the decision to hold municipal elections, because it was made unconstitutionally by an unelected government and without the consultation of Gaza officials.

The meeting was scheduled at the Monday cabinet session on 1 February.

The meeting went ahead without representatives from Hamas, with caretaker Minister of Local Governance Khalid Al-Qausmi government confirming that the Central Elections Committee had been asked to begin preparations, the first of which would be the list of eligible voters.

The last set of municipal elections were held in the West Bank and Gaza in 2006.